


Varieté Obscur

by Billywick, hisboywriter



Series: Young Avengers Roleplay Fiction [7]
Category: Young Avengers
Genre: M/M, merman au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-29
Updated: 2013-05-29
Packaged: 2017-12-13 08:47:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 46,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/822357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Billywick/pseuds/Billywick, https://archiveofourown.org/users/hisboywriter/pseuds/hisboywriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A curious, adventurous, possibly foolish prince and his quest to find one of the mysterious 'mer-sharks', creatures with the face of a man and the eyes of a monster. And his tale once he does.</p><p>[Makes a little more sense if you have read hisboywriter's merman!AU Sons of the Sea]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> rp style! Beware continuous switching of pov. Inspired by hisboywriter and cris-art's merman AU, originally designated for Billy and Teddy alone.  
> Also there is an instance of fishy sex. Literally.

Before Tommy ventured his first trip beyond the city, he learned that monstrosities did not solely exist on the land. Where two-limbed vermin stalked the shores above his home, those with eyes darker than the sea and denticulated maws lurked in the sea’s gullet.

Cousins of the shark that Tommy respected, these beasts had parity with Tommy’s on principle. Of the things Tommy head about them, he came to understand these types of sharks sank beneath his kind, were as frowned upon as they were feared. Perhaps if they did not look as monstrous as Tommy painted them to be in his mind, they might have been incorporated into the cities, invited to events, or seen more often among the sea’s children.

Tommy had not once seen such a shark. Thus, why he tore through the current, chasing the opaque sheet of water looming nearby. What his grandfather would say, he could imagine, but chose to disregard it. Those escorting him would just now be picking up traces of his sneaking off. They could not catch him, naturally. What olfactory leverage sharks were rumored to have, Tommy had his own specialty, that of speed.

Once he felt the darkness of foreign waters wash over him, his movement slowed, eyes alert. His sense of smell could not compete with a shark’s, and a frisson of excitement (for it could not be fear) acquainted itself with him as he undulated deeper.

In the distance he saw motes of light from the bright gem in the sky, its fingers touching a school of fish. Beyond that, he made out little. Darkness below.

There.

Tommy resisted the mad urge to dive to one side. Among the school of fish, he saw it. Massive, eyes that could suck his soul out, and a tail mightier than any of the fish-type sharks Tommy had seen.

It was a white beast, he recognized as the mer-shark rode out the current lazily, seemingly sated with a meal perhaps. The fish nearby scattered upon its presence.

Agog with the sight, Tommy traversed closer, heart five beats quicker than last.

Dashes of silver streaked his vision, scales catching the distant light from above as the shoal scattered left and right, above and beyond him, as if his jaws might close on any of them at any given second. Their fear was justified, but pointless. He’d eaten. He’d feasted, even, and the remains lingered between rows of teeth made to tear flesh from any bone or grate. 

He called himself Noh-Varr, though few would remember the name as opportunity to give it passed seldom in the form of one brave enough to encroach upon his territory. Solitary life was a given for his kind, and he would be stretching the truth thinly if he insisted he did not enjoy it. A good meal, no enemies from beyond the boundaries of what he called his and a stillness in the waters above made for a splendid day.

Well, almost.

His nose, an extraordinary thing that could lead to the death of many, had picked up on something a good while ago. It was no shark, nor mer-shark, that much he could smell. But the delicate scent had something...more fragile about it. Something more delectable. He doubted his senses could be giving him the truth though, because the creatures that carried such a note did not venture here. Unless they had very good cause and a brave, foolish heart.

His path diverged as he left the shoal, enticed by the scent though his hunger not roused. Not yet. Curiosity in paced measure and affordable risk could indeed be indulged.

Of course the mer-shark had caught the edges of Tommy’s scent. Yet when the creature heaved its bulk and swayed toward him, not with the agitated pace of one angered nor with the prowl of one on a hunt, Tommy lost his wits in the moment it took for his gills to seize up.

He had gotten too close. Nonsense, he assured himself. He was fast, faster than this underwater boulder.

Still, Tommy’s scales prickled and his heart leapt high into his throat. To dive away would ensure a chase, and it fell beneath a princely merman to break the austerity they were known for. Instead, Tommy drifted to the side, not encroaching further, but making the mer-shark aware that Tommy noticed his presence. He had once heard that mer-shark were less inclined to engage a son or maiden of the sea.

Tommy did not consider if this extended to when one invaded the mer-shark’s territory.

The scent thickened as he followed it and Noh-Varr almost made a curious respite. Was this creature incapable of flight? Or perhaps it was stunned to have been noticed so quickly, though its prying eyes had lingered on Noh-Varr for a good long while before the mer-shark was close enough for his eyes to depict what had intruded upon his territory.

It was one of those who called themselves the sea’s children. A young one at that, scales flashy and bright, a slender, muscular tail that bore no scars, nor the dull, faded markings of age. His hair was remarkably bright, it might even carry the shade Noh knew his own to be, though he doubted that was more than coincidence.

The little merboy wasn’t fleeing. What a curious creature. Did he believe an intent, firm gaze would save him from Noh’s wrath, should he choose to inflict it upon him?

“You are a long way from home, little fish,” he didn’t come much closer than his body length in measure, instead opting to circle lazily.  
Tommy’s drifting pace increased as the mer-shark approached, intent to take in the sight of what had sank into the deeper belly of the sea. Upon its arrival, Tommy’s eyes absorbed the details. The beast was far bigger than he had calculated, packed with strength that Tommy did not possess. He understood why many scorned and feared such creatures. One snatch of their fins and they were a meal.

When it spoke, Tommy paused in his agitated swimming, ears perking up. Intelligence? That, the rumors varies. Many insisted the monstrosities were as dumb as they were powerful, others claimed their tact relied in silent intelligence, merely portraying a lame creature.

Tommy lifted his chin and swam a few inches higher, positioning himself so the mer-shark had to angle his head up at him.

“I am a child of the sea,” he said back, narrowing his eyes, “all of her body is my home.”

Noh’s eyebrows drew together for an absurdly confused moment, before they found amusement in the intruder’s words, lips drawing back to reveal a mouth full of teeth intended for sawing and ripping at the flesh of the world. 

Noh-Varr had encountered folk from that oddly colourful, shallow water before. The currents of the south converged there, it was a plentiful colony of many fish and sea creatures and somehow, these overgrown clownfish saw themselves at the top of the chain. It was both amusing and appetizing, to know such a delicacy could afford such ill pretenses of arrogance.

“I am but a humble resident of the sea, but all of her body is my buffet.”

The smile of death grew wider.

“And what brings you here, son of the sea?”

Tommy’s face soured at the expression, accepting the inclined dislike his ancestors bore toward these mindless devourers. They lazed, they ate, and somehow procreated, and that ended the circle of their parasitic lives.

Perhaps the words struck their mark, for the prince swam around the mer-shark below him, bestowing him the sight of the shine to his scales, unlike the average folk who did not amount to the glory a princely merman earned upon birth.

“I am the prince,” he shot back at the mer-shark, though in truth he was one of two princes, “and I go where I please, even to the deeper waters where your kind assume control over though you have no right to claim it.”

Noh-Varr had enough of being blinded by the shine of scales that served as no more than an irritant when caught between his rows of teeth. With a powerful wave of his tail, he propelled himself to eye level with the young prince. Prince. What was a feeble monarchy in the vast face of the ocean? He knew her waters, had traversed far and wide in search of the territory suited to his expectations and this one was nigh perfect. Save for the pitiful shoal of coral-loving fish that bordered what he considered his.

“A prince? Of what? Your reef?” the circling was more persistent now, the mer-shark closer, powerful body coiling in a manner that bordered on a prowl.

“And what gives you the right to claim any waters at all? Your shiny scales?”

Tommy’s heritage founded itself in the deeds of his ancestors, those who unionized the creatures of the seas thousands upon thousands of years ago when tranquility teetered; the age of the two-limbed monsters above had spawned the distress among the sea creatures and Tommy’s ancestors had quelled it with heroic acts.

“You know the story, unless you are as stupid as your kind look,” Tommy said, portraying the guise of a son that had seen all types in his travels. He did not consider that the impeccability of his body would betray him. No pampered, mate-attracting shine to his body would tell tales of hour-long journeys and obstacles along the way.

Though the mer-shark so near him had him whip down and circle from another area, at a distance.

“If I want to journey through here, I have the right to.”

The little merman darted like a flying fish, lacking the purpose and sleek elegance of a predator. No, he was definitely prey, very fast moving prey that would take too much effort for too little reward. Noh-Varr had seen muscle in that tail, a powerful curl had taken the prince far from where he’d been posturing as if his alleged royalty meant anything to the mer-shark.

Never ceasing his movement, he turned once more, adjusting himself to be upright, exposing the paler shade than ran down from his stomach to his tail as he rested his arms on his hips.

“If you persist, I have the right to hunt you down just like anything else in my territory. If you can’t respect my borders, I won’t find myself straying from your reef anymore. There is something quite delectable and satisfying about your...taste.”

The audacity of such a parasite! Tommy’s tail propelled him a little closer and around the mer-shark, not daring to remain still when those eyes pinned themselves to his every movement. An asquint look, and Tommy noted the same power lining what most of his people felt as the delicate stretch of their bodies. This creature though had nothing weak for display, not even the too apparent lengths of his claspers.

Red bounced off Tommy’s face, seeped into his bones, and fueled his bitter laugh.

“Hunt me?” he mocked, making a show of slowing down his body, “You couldn’t even catch me.”

“Is that so?” Noh-Varr didn’t have to swim up any further, the clown-prince was keeping a moderate distance and he had not missed the discrete downward travel of his glance. An idea came to mind, one that might entertain him for a few moments, a pleasure he seldom shared with any creature. Mostly because when he did flex the power of his body, all manner of life scattered from the vicinity.

“What would you stake that claim on? An arm? Perhaps your pretty tail fin?”

Tommy instinctively crossed his arms and scowled at the beast, lest he expose an iota of apprehension. Once the mer-shark caught more than a whiff of his scent, but of his fear, Tommy knew enough to recognize he could forfeit more than tail and arm then.

“If you were hungry, you would have made for those fish,” he pointed out. “I am not supplying your fat gullet with my tail or arm for feeding. Select something else,” he said, turning his nose away and up with a soft ‘hmph’, “and perhaps I’ll indulge your inevitable loss.”

“Anything of my choosing?” Noh neared the merman once more, indulging the fool in his arrogance. Whatever speed had this prince float so aloof would truly meet its match in his sated, powerful body. And perhaps, his body could indulge in something that required no speed, but a lazy drift, a coil that would ensnare senses and truly reward him for his efforts.

“When I catch you, I will have your pretty scales. And not in my gullet.”

Tommy lowered his arms, studying what the mer-shark said. His scales? They were not for the admiring of sharks, let alone those with the temerity of a beast.

“Have them for what? They do not come off so easily, you understand,” he bit back, though something innate had him swim back a few yards.

“I do not intend to remove them,” Noh-Varr kept their distance even, following when the prince sought the means to a possible escape. His day had been brightened by the thought of challenge, and bettered by the promise of reward. And this was a pretty, pretty merboy. One he would not mind devouring with something much different to his mouth. A swift push of his tail had him circle around the boy’s back, the rough hide of his underside brushing over shimmering emerald scales.

“But I will taste what lays beyond.”

It was not until the rough texture of the mer-shark against his scale did the words ring deep from within, an alarm that had the prince dash away another handful of yards before whirling to find the mer-shark closing the distance between them already.

“Foul beast!” Tommy’s colors intensified, not unlike when attracting a mate, though its intent was to obtain the opposite. “How dare you suggest such a thing.”

His ears stretched to the side, and his scales would stand on their ends if possible. All signs of ire and distaste. Tommy dove down and up, glancing back.

“Stop following me!”

The prince’s nimble escape bore easy evidence of his discomfort, but far be it from Noh-Varr to let it deter him. He followed, still much the lazing beast, though his eyes shone with the hope of a hunt, and one that would not end in frenzied feeding. The scales of the son were bright, attracting his attention and his dormant desire to possess. Oh yes, he would like to possess those scales, the curve of that back that dipped into a delicate structure of power. 

“It seems your confidence has waned in the face of actual stakes, fishprince,” he commented, circling once more as he closed the distance. This arrogant fool would know very soon why his kin were wise enough to stay far from shark infested waters.

“It has not,” Tommy said, louder than necessary.

The mer-shark invaded his space once more, and he recoiled, diving upward. Yet still the creature persisted. A light sparkled in his dark gaze, one that even the prince understood despite his lack of expertise.

“Foul parasite,” he hissed, eyes flicking to the west.

Though neither had proclaimed the hunt to begin, nor had Tommy the intent to humor the mer-shark, he bolted, arms to his side and swimming as fast as he ever had, hoping the bubbles swelling around the mer-shark told him how futile it was to chase after one such as Tommy.

The sudden cloud of bubbles impaired his vision, but his sense of smell would never be paralyzed by such a juvenile act. Noh-Varr allowed his body’s instincts to rule him for the first moments, to chase what fled, to hunt whatever he desired.

The prince was fast indeed, there was no denying that fact as the great tail began pumping to lessen the distance. Perhaps he had raced shoals of fish or his kin to garner such a burst, though it would suit him ill to falter all too soon. Noh-Varr had a belly full of fish and spent the better part lazing, not expending the might of his muscles if he did not see fit cause to do so.

This cause was very fit for a demonstration indeed. His arms flatted to his sides, his nose guiding him through whirls of bubbles and the endless blue of the ocean, he followed, no longer hunting out of a carnal desire to rip something apart, but to possess that which eluded him so swiftly. 

Tommy ripped through the currents, the sea nudging him faster as though rooting for her champion swimmer. No swimmer had surpassed the agility or speed Tommy had been blessed with, and no shark, mer-kind or not, would damage that reputation.

As the rush of a high speed swim tickled through his limbs, Tommy spared peeks back over his shoulder as few times as one could to not impede his course. Behind him the great white catapulted after him. The strength Tommy had previously acknowledged was being utilized to its full advantage. While Tommy’s endurance outdid most, the strength of the mer-shark’s powerful pin ate the distance between them.

Tommy grit his teeth and pressed on, diving, making loops, and zigzagging to slow down the progress of a massive body. Surely the mer-shark had to lose water by adjusting his bulk around.

Another glance and Tommy laughed as the distance yawned. “What was that you were going to do? Taste beyond my scales?” he laughed at the loser.

Hundreds of more yards and Tommy dared a final look over his shoulder.

No mer-shark.


	2. Chapter 2

No mer-shark.

Tommy circled to a halt, smiling, another laugh bubbling through him. He had done it, left the foolish brute behind in bubbles and the sting of defeat.

“Pathetic,” he said, turning now that the fun ended, intending to return to those searching for him.

When he did, he collided into the very creature he had scorned.

A cry, a failed dive to the right, and Tommy was grappling in a grip to fierce for him to break, despite the flailing his fin did, creating a miasma of bubbles around them.

“Impossible! How,” Tommy spat, hissing, webbed ears trembling in warning. “Let go of me!”

 

Noh-Varr had taken a shortcut, bypassing the loops and cheap thrills the prince attempted to slow him down with, knowing he would have to sacrifice a little style for his ultimate victory.

It was a worthy cause to have caught such a brightly scaled fish in his grasp. Of course, as any trapped being, he struggled complained noisily and this time, he could not keep the fear from his voice. A fear that, given Noh’s species’ reputation, was justified to let him believe he might be becoming shark chum.

“Fair is fair. I have caught you, fishprince. Time for my prize.”

For such a massive beast, Tommy had deeply underestimated the stealth such a creature could possess. In retrospect, it held sense; what good was a hunter if they cavorted noisily toward their prey? The deep blues of the sea had abandoned Tommy to his arrogance, tucking the mer-shark out of view.

Now, the prince thrashed as any fish caught by the teeth of a predator. He hissed louder and revealed how much fury could inflict the merfolk, how eager they were to deliver pain and drown men for their own benefit.

“You will not,” Tommy ordered, wiggling his head as far from the mer-shark as possible. “They will gut you for touching me!”

The body in his grip twisted and turned, tried to find a weakened spot in his steadfast hold, but the prince would be disappointed with the results of the desperate search. Noh-Varr would not be the massive beast he was now if he let anything slip from his grasp.

“You would not speak of it to anyone,” he chuckled, nostrils flaring slightly as he neared the boy’s shoulder, feeling the familiar tingle of hunger at the back of his throat. Already he could feel himself roll back eyes, ready to put his saw-like teeth to good use. 

As shameful as it was, Tommy never quite heard himself scream, and less so with the desperation currently burning through his body. Futility best described his attempts to flee. His neck angled away, shoulder trembling as he felt the mer-shark loom against the area.

In his dismay, Tommy pinched his eyes shut, unwilling to submit to his end here. Surely the mer-shark would have his way and then tear off his arm, or fin, as an after-dinner meal.

And just as the first scratch of teeth dragged against his skin, he felt more than he heard a rush of an object whipping past them. Tommy cried out. His eyes snapped opened. There, in the distance, the troupe responsible for his care charged forward, their tridents poised to impale the mer-shark holding their prince captive.

“Creature of the dark waters,” one said, the tone telling what he thought of the mer-shark. “You hold a prince in your hands and command you to return him to us. Your territory or not, your punishment will be death should you harm him. Now.” 

The weapon, its three points so unlike the lines of teeth Tommy had seen within the maw of the mer-shark aimed itself at its prey.

“Careful, you fools!” Tommy wiggled in the grip. “You almost struck me with that act!”

Noh-Varr would not have taken the prince’s arm, no matter how the arrogant fool deserved to lose limbs for encroaching upon his world, he was entertaining enough to save for another day.

The guards’ arrival had his face curl into displeasure, eyes rolling back to the front to see his enemies with their prongs, as if they would stand a fighting chance should he choose to take offense to their threat.

The prince was too unguarded to not be enticing, and he leaned forward one more time, grazing his teeth over skin too soft and yielding to be superior to him.

“My punishment will be death? Bold words from the mouths of trembling minnows with toothpicks.”

Tommy flinched from the touch, face growing pink and contrasting well with his emerald patches.

“What are you waiting for,” he shouted to the mermen, “spear him!”

Spear him they did not. Their limbs tense, Tommy watched them share a collection of looks, many unsettling for the princeling. Wariness did not bode well with him, and he suddenly regretted dismissing his grandfather’s demand he be tagged by proper soldiers, and not palace guards who had more show than muscle.

“Idiots!” He flashed his tail at them. “If you don’t do something he’s going to drag me off! Do it now!”

That prompted one to hurry forward, ‘toothpick’ in tow and making a sluggish stab for the mer-shark’s lower fin.

It served little purpose other than showing Noh-Varr how ill-advised the people of the coral city had become. If this was how they guarded their prince, he could take over the warmer waters and reef all by himself, should he choose to. A beat of his massive tail had the guard wobble, his grip on his spear tight but with fear, not the stern confidence someone who ought to protect should carry.

“This is your guard, my little fishprince? I have seen pups with more mettle. See how their fins tremble?” he sank his teeth into the prince’s shoulder, but it was nothing but a mostly harmless display of dominance, one that would leave marks, yet no wounded flesh.

“Farewell in your kingdom of minnows, little prince.”

The mer-shark released his prize, propelled him forward as he turned, drifting away on a current with lazy motions.

*

Of course Tommy’s grandfather heard of the less-than-heroic deed his grandson had wagered his life for. The guards babbled away and the mark at the prince’s neck said plenty, and how it infuriated him. It did not surprise him he had gained the wrath of his grandfather, caged within the city, no longer allowed to venture outside while his brother could.

Unfair, humiliating, and maddening.

Tommy exhaled a string of bubbles as he lowered down to the reef within his grand chambers that served as a resting spot. Lazing there, he peered out the hole in the coral at fishes rushing by, of what awaited in the distance. More than once his mind travelled to the mer-shark.

Ever since he had released Tommy in lieu of devouring him, the prince thought too much of it. Why had he been let go? He could have devoured not only him, but the guards as well, having the power for it.

No justification satisfied Tommy, and truly, it was all he could manage to keep his wits about him as he sulked in his prison.

The reef was even brighter up close than he had thought. Colourful life of all manner flourished here and nothing reminded him of the blue and black and silver of his world. The water was brightened by the disc beyond the waves, the one that exchanged the warmth Noh-Varr sometime enjoyed caressing his back for cool, pale light in the night, the one that guided him to what his nose had smelled miles away, but looked all the more appetizing illuminated. To see life pulse in the beings that became his meals just moments before they did so was something astonishing, flattering even. And very private. To think that their lives flowed into him, that their deaths came dictated only by his hunger and their misfortune, was tribute to his strength, to his prowess as a hunter, a keeper of the sea, one who did not shirk his duties, nor made play at disobeying their harsh mother’s rule. Sharks ate, because that’s what sharks were for. 

So, really, curiousity suited him ill. Why had he come here? To lay claim to a prize that he never did win, according to the mouth of one pampered prince of nothing?

The colourful life here scattered before him when they spotted him. He wondered how long it would take until he might find pointed toothpicks in his direction once more.

Tommy recognized the distress as quickly as he picked up on a dolphin’s tilt in promiscuity; one did not mingle with dolphins much and not play victim to mounting by them. Fishes and other children of the sea blew bubbles in their wake from beyond his viewpoint. He approached the area, waved down a sea turtle and asked what was amiss.

Though men would not quite understand this, merfolk understood the language of other creatures, though they never spoke as Tommy did. So when the turtle relayed its paranoia, Tommy’s heart spoke of memories. It could not be the same great white to now be prowling through this land.

Leaning out of his chambers, Tommy exclaimed. There he saw the shark, again without the ferocity of a hunter. Of all days. No soldiers lined the city today, many to the surface upon hearing of a man’s fat transporter (a...bot, he thought it was called) looming nearby. Even his grandfather had left the city, abandoning it to few guards that now sallied forth to face the threat.

Though to constitute the shark’s pace as anything but a curious stroll through the colourful city was grave exaggeration. Noh-Varr had eaten before attempting his gander, though his belly could fit a few more deaths before it was sated.

He liked the warm waters and dance of light from above, surely, the residents of this place had good cause to hold it as they did.

Maybe he would like this place instead. There were guards, yes, but he paid them no heed, swimming, his mouth slightly agape, not of wonder, but habit.

Tommy gawked at the guards, uncertain in their own certainty of how to proceed. A mer-shark had not intruded upon the city in a two centuries at the least, and now one undulated through as though the territory belonged to him. Even from the distance the mer-shark’s size bloated in comparison to the thick guards.

“He’s mad,” Tommy exclaimed to himself.

Someone intruded his space, and he turned to see two guards already escorting him out of the viewing point Tommy had been looking out of.

“We need to remove you from the area,” one said, flanking one of his sides.

Tommy swam with them, peering around and seeing the mer-shark closer now. He could see the dark eyes, the slack jaw, the teeth. A shiver crept through him. 

“Why is he here?” he asked.

“We do not know. Your safety comes first, Your Highness.”

He began to grow tired of the watchful eyes on him. He could smell the fear of those that deigned it their duty to show him hostility, to attempt to surround him, block his path and yet still, parted as eagerly as scared shoals of Bluefin Tuna for his passing.

“It is a curious manner of greeting a guest, I suppose,” he addressed a guard, who looked just about ready to let go of his trident and swim for the safety of a cave or shallow waters, anywhere those eyes and teeth could not follow.

“You are not welcomed here,” the guard said, with a severity that did not extend to how he held his trident. The grip tightened, yet the arms quivered. “What has possessed you to enter our territory?”

From above, Tommy observed the scene. He heard it as well, and he had to wonder if the mer-shark had true intentions to stroll through the city. When he tried to stray closer to hear better, the guards tugged on his elbow with no gentleness and dragged him on.

“I would have but a word with your fishprince,” Noh-Varr circled lazily, not at all ignorant of how he widened the surrounding guards pushed them further out every time he flicked closer. For added measure, he addressed the guard who had spoken with a more than toothy smile.

“So disappointing that he bears my mark and does not return to pay what he owes.”

A proclivity for the wild and adventure aside, Tommy alienated himself from those of the royal court by lack of clamp his tongue had. As the guards hauled him along, hurrying, he yanked his limbs from their hands and exclaimed his disgust and horror down at the mer-shark.

“How dare you come and speak of me like that!” He was bristling again, the silver and emerald of his scales and patches brimming. “You have orders to spear him! Better yet, amputate his fin and let him float to the surface to become a meal for the monsters above!”

When the guards hesitated, Tommy bellowed at them once more, and they seized their nerves. They dove after the mer-shark, intent to fulfil their prince’s orders.

Instincts took over as he was rushed from all sides and Noh-Varr spun around himself, knocking a few tridents away with a sweep of his tail, then plunging down. He barrelled himself beneath the guards, seizing one to wield as a shield against those that would dare attack him. The guard in his grip struggled for an instant, before feeling the strength of claws dig into his flesh and giving a soundless scream of fear as tridents stabbed at his form.

Noh-Varr was in control of the situation, even avoided letting the weapons draw blood for he knew what kind of frenzy it would unleash within him. He released the guard once he’d smashed him into three of his comrades, seizing another’s tail with his teeth and giving a wild shake of his head, ripping through thin tissue as if it were nought but a shroud to him.  
The blood released had him still for a moment, drawing it in as his eyes rolled back, showing nothing but white until he regained control over himself and tossed the merman aside. 

“The next fool to come at me will become a meal, so think carefully, you pompous minnows,” he warned.

Tommy darted around this way and that. Each defeat escalated the drum of his heart and had him drift a further distance away. Blood coiled and suffused the area, but no deaths floated among it. Perhaps the mer-shark was being pompous, showing how death was a constant presence in his teeth, at his will to control.

What few guards remained untouched submitted to the futility and backed off.

Tommy cried out at their cowardice.

With no conscious thought, his hand drifted to the faint marks the mer-shark had left what seemed ages ago.

The two guards that had been on either side of his hip had dove down to aid their comrades. Now, they yelled at him to flee, to tuck himself into a hiding reef nearby. Yet all Tommy could do was stare down below at the bedlam.

Two more dove at him now, still fresh and brazen with pride, but Noh would soon have that corrected. The mermen might come close to his size, but they lacked the power he’d earned himself through years of survival, not pampered in the safety of this reef, but forced to fight for his life near every day.

The first was met by a head on charge, the guard dizzied by the impact of Noh’s rather hard head to his face, cracking the delicate bones of his nose and losing his grip on his weapon. The mer-shark seized it to fend off the blow of the merman’s comrade, before he charged once more, now armed. The guard tried to avoid him, tried to dodge away only to find himself against a wall of coral. Noh rammed the trident into the wall with devastating force right beside his head.

“Your kind claims itself civilized, and yet you are too weak to fend off but one shark? Pitiful,” he snarled, before setting his sights on the prince. 

“All this for a word with you? Your shiny scales do not weigh such efforts,” he snapped, spiralling up until he was level with the prince. There was distinct displeasure in his face, brows drawn together and no smile gracing his features.

“You would waste your kin to save your pride? You are no prince, just a cowardly child.”

Tommy staggered backward upon the mer-shark barreling into his space, the austerity of his expression unsettling the prince more than his words, slightly. A quick glance and Tommy counted those with ailments, and almost all with a fear dormant in them.

Where he had dashed out of the mer-shark’s vision before, Tommy held himself where he floated, pride rooting him.

“You intruded, they have the duty to attack,” Tommy breathed, perhaps inching a little further back now. “There are no words for you to have with me. You repel me.”

“Do I?” Noh-Varr spoke with no mirth in his tone now, constantly moving, his tail betraying more agitation than during the fight with the guards. He glanced around, smelled the heavy scent of fear, mingled with traces of blood thinned by endless waters. Of course, there was nothing but fear, resentment and disgust on the faces he could see peeking from hiding spots. It was nothing new, for it was the expression every living thing had towards the top of the foodchain.

And yet, in this moment, it irked him like never before.

“So it would have been my right to attack you as you perused my territory, correct? I should have torn you to shreds, according to your own philosophy. For a bunch of cowards who claim their sovereignty over the seas, your kind is so very ignorant, like children. No, worse than children. They have the capacity to learn.”

He flicked his tail again, flashing the old scars and embedded hook.

“You invaded my home to gawk at me, here I am returning the favour. Let it be a lesson to you, fishprince.”

With that he turned, taking his leave with no hurry, but disappointment weighing heavily in his gut. This hunt was over, only met with fear and rejection again. What had he expected to be different about the young merman he once thought attractively bold?

Tommy listened, unable to flee should every nerve in him screamed at him to. The weight of the mer-shark’s words stung old wounds and yawned opened new ones. As quick as the words crushed him, the creature spun and made to leave. As simple as that.

Fear dissipating into something uglier, Tommy scanned the city he had been raised in, coddled in. Of course he knew how true the mer-shark spoke, but to hear another say it. How it affected him--Rather, it should have not. What did a mer-shark know about anything that didn’t involve destruction?

“You,” the curse failed Tommy, but his vigor respawned. Diving forward, he brazenly blocked the mer-shark’s path, his tail twitching in his own agitation. “What do you know about me? You’re the one to speak so foolishly to me! You don’t know my life,” he bit out, charging a little forward, fire in his eyes and his nose inches from the mer-shark’s. “You do not know what a life of captivity does to someone! To be looked at, but not allowed to look, to explore, to...what do you know! You live a life of solitude and have no obligations other than to your own so don’t you dare speak to me as if you understand! I,” pink suffused his cheeks, “had never seen your...kind, so if I wanted to do so, I may!”

Anger drove away the mild surprise that had taken him when the prince blocked his path, couldn’t just let him leave without offering a rebuttal to his scolding words.

But the audacity of his tongue was unacceptable. This coddled, spoiled young idiot spoke as if he had any right to assume his own importance, an unanimous consent on the merfolks sovereign grip on all those they considered a lesser species.

Noh-Varr surged forward, seizing the prince’s sides, fingers dangerously close to the gills.

“And I have never fucked one of your kind, does that give me the right to stroll into your city and do so? In your words, you don’t know my life either, and you should count yourself lucky I am a far more integral creature than you could ever dream to be. Stay in your little castle, spoiled little dolphin and do not go seek monsters without the heart to stand by your own words.”

The cry that flew out of Tommy ashamed him, but those hands, denticulated at the points like claws, felt far more massive and dangerous when so close to a delicate area. On instinct, his breathing shortened, and his hands shoved at a chest that would not budge.

Fear should have mounted the prince and should have humbled him. After all, he recognized the truth to the mer-shark’s words. Yet he did not act upon them, though his grip tightened around the prince. 

Perhaps because Tommy lacked the methods of his grandfather to handle uncomfortable situations, the prince found himself chuckling, lips twitching. He should not be laughing, and any guards hobbling their way to help him would find him mad.

“I...thought you to be legends,” he admitted at last, and his lips continued with their twitching, fear and something stronger cresting in his eyes. “Nor did I realize how sensitive such a large creature could be,” he added, amused.

Both mer-shark and merman were swimming in place, though Noh’s tail swished as if it did not know the meaning of being still. His hands continued to linger on the prince, though no pressure forced nails like claws into soft flesh or sensitive gills.

Noh-Varr searched the young prince’s expression for fear and disgust, yet the only traces he found were remnants, leashed tightly to a weariness that was basic survival instinct. So it seemed the prince could learn.  
Though the agitation of his lips drew Noh’s dark eyes as they darted to the movement, the soft curves looking enticing in a way he had never considered a creature of this kind.

“You know nothing of sharks, little prince. But you do have one point I will admit to; I do not know you. You could grace me with your name in retribution for my troubles.”

It seemed the mer-shark would not devour him today. The bite of his nails withdrew, pressure remaining. Tommy studied the creature’s expression, those bottomless eyes, and his always prominent teeth.

A name he could share, for one in return. “For yours in return, if your kind have such things,” Tommy said, shoving his right palm harder into the other’s chest. “Tommy,” he said, disliking the birth name Thomas enough to bypass its introduction. 

Tommy. What an odd name to give to one of supposed royal blood. Noh-Varr felt the push against his chest, too weak to express true protest and he wondered just how much the prince...Tommy enjoyed lingering in the presence of danger. A spoiled brat with the inevitable urge to earn respect by daring to do what most would not.

“We do bear names. I am Noh-Varr,” his arms drew the prince closer, enough to let him feel a good portion of the white underside of his tail, “and I will let you out of your debt, if you allow me to try just one thing before I take my leave.”

At the reeling in, Tommy yanked his head farther back as an instinct that wanted his neck as far from the maw as possible. Such a close proximity caused the delicate underside of their fins to bump. Tommy aimed to tilt his lower body away from the contact as he considered the proposition.

“I have no debt,” he said, but once their underbellies brushed again, he grunted and battled the feeling of going redder. “Fine,” he snapped. “You may. One thing. No more.”

“Just one thing then,” Noh-Varr’s moved into something approximating a smile, though his teeth made nothing pleasant of such a gesture. His eyes had completely fixated themselves to Tommy’s mouth and finally, a hand left the area below the gills, sliding up to meet a soft neck and nape where it lingered.

The mer-shark tilted his head, awkwardly at first as if trying to decide how he would best fit, before he broke through whatever concerns restrained him and pressed his lips to the prince’s. He did not dare venture further, for Tommy tasted of something pleasant and delicious.

Each fiber contained within Tommy seized up. For a mad instance, he began to thrash, certain the mer-shark had an appetite to be sated with a prince’s blood. Then to a deeper horror, the prince recognized the gesture was a kiss.

To describe it, Tommy lacked the wit to do so. At the most he acknowledged that none of the teeth scratched at his mouth, nor did the pressure feel as rough as other parts of the mer-shark’s body. Noh-Varr’s body. Curious name.

When it ended, Tommy rode out a shiver and his gills resumed functioning. A little coil and he broke free of the hold, distancing himself from the creature once more. He stared, fingertips to his mouth.

“You,” he started, losing the insult or the flummoxed proclamation, “you are...free to go back home.”

Noh didn’t move just yet, staying exactly where he’d kissed the prince of mermen. In front of his guards, in front of the terrified residents of the city, who now looked to Tommy with horrified curiosity.

The kiss lingered on him still, the taste and feeling of the prince against his lips an experience both delightful in taste and implication, but he tended to lean towards the former. Tommy tasted like a blend of cuttlefish and marlin, which might possibly be his favourite flavours in the entire sea, yet they entangled with a sweet, unfamiliar note in the prince’s mouth.

“...I will take my leave then.”

Tommy watched him go unaware of the malaise to befall him once word got out to his grandfather.


	3. Chapter 3

For a furious ruler, Tommy’s grandfather occupied himself too much to ensure that all matters relating to the mischievous twin executed themselves. Sneaking away had become a trade Tommy knew well, even with a couple of soldiers thrown into the mix. And, what did it matter if they caught on? Tommy was too fast, a true champion of the sea.

He selected tonight, for the air above earned a heartache and wept into the sea, who always mimicked the sky’s aggression as a means of support. From where he swam, Tommy heard the water drop into the sea as thick sheets, the sky wailing and making sparks of light with each gnash of his teeth.

Tommy maneuvered with more care when the sea became like this, more so as he teetered at the edge of a familiar darkness. It had been one fat, white sphere in the sky since he last saw the mer-shark. His grandfather had not taken the news well, and Tommy, naturally, responded to it by seeking out the very thing his grandfather loathed. 

There was a storm up above and Noh-Varr found himself restless, for every shark who had seen more than a few months of survival knew what manner of creature fell prey to the flashes of bright light and into the embrace of the furious sea.

Humans. The merfolk called them monsters from above, but not so the mer-sharks. For that, the odd creatures ended up as part of a meal far too often when they fell from their floating beasts of burden and straight to the maws of those that were smart enough to seek them out during a storm such as this one.

So it was no surprise he spiralled closer to the surface, though he did not ascend the heights where he might be tossed around by the waves, kept himself beneath them as he searched for any drop of blood, anything to lead him to where his kin would no doubt wait for a feeding frenzy.

Tommy spotted Noh-Varr, much higher and nearer to the surface than he expected. Swirling up, he flinched at the sounds of the sky’s heartache, diving down each time he sensed a flash of painful light streak the sky.

Yet the mer-shark neared closer, as if searching for something. Perhaps he wanted to catch the light?

Tommy saw another flash of light, then a shadow crept over them. Panic stricken, for he knew it must be a monster’s creation, he dashed forward and collided right into Noh-Varr, who had yet to recoil.

“What are you doing?!” He flailed at the shadow. “Monsters! They’ll catch you, tear off your fin, gouge your eyes, and feed on you!”

With the sea so turbulent, Noh didn’t take in the smell of a familiar merman, too distracted by the notion of a large meal he may have to defend against other sharks fiercely tonight. He had not expected for anything to barrel into him, but the way the agitated prince floated close, his fear was very obviously thinly veiled.

“Gouge my eyes? I’d like to see them try. What are you doing out here, little prince?” the mer-shark glanced up to where the dark bulk of the ship rode the waves.

“Did you come looking for a meal as well?”

“A meal?” Clearly the mer-shark was delusional, struck dumb by staring upward at the bolts of light. “What are you speaking of? Those are monsters. You do not eat them. They eat you! You must leave! You have a death wish?”

Tommy blocked Noh-Varr’s view, insistent to retract his attention from the shadow. From above, new sounds floated beneath the surface, and Tommy cried out, diving in circles and spinning to one of the shadow to another, eyes wide as if expecting a beast any moment.

Noh-Varr could not contain a laugh upon the prince’s words. His outrage, fear and panic combined into a distinctly...cute notion. The little merman was flinching and darting around as if his life may end if he lingered the shadow of the ship’s rump for too long. 

Deciding he could yet afford the time as he waited for the ship to meet its defeat at the hands of the combined rage of storm and sea, the mer-shark circled the prince slowly, coiling his body close enough for easy contact.

“None may hunt the hunter, little prince. The monsters you speak of, the ones from above? They are nothing but frail creatures, once tossed into the sea, their lives are forfeit at her behest, I merely choose my trimmings of her spoils.”

Tommy had no flinches to spare at Noh-Varr’s proximity, all saved for what the sky and the monsters above revealed to him either in sight or sound. Not convinced, Tommy remained struck by a paroxysm of panic and dread. He could not stay still.

“Frail? They are conniving! Legs with ends to crush our fins, their lungs dry and with noxious gas. They hunt us! They search for our kind for their pleasure. You cannot eat them!”

“Oh?” Noh-Varr continued to watch the prince and not the boat, yet he knew there would soon be other sharks circling the large, breaking beast from beyond the shores.

“I find their legs to be quite crunchy, though the flavour of your monsters...humans, is quite an acquired taste,” the mer-shark stilled, coiling his body so close it almost resembled a sea serpent’s embrace as he stared off into the distance.

“You did yourself no favour in coming here, Tommy,” he spoke lowly, eyes still fixed on the dark blue, “for it may be an acquired taste, but it is by far not mine alone.”

With effort, Tommy met the mer-shark’s gaze and calculated the authenticity of such accusations. Once their meaning rang with purpose, Tommy scanned how Noh-Varr continued coiling around him. Recalling his dignity, Tommy squirmed a few yards away.

“You mean...more mer-sharks?” he asked.

Though as he spoke, he saw the very creatures his kind loathed swarming.

“Exactly,” Noh-Varr’s gaze was searching for familiar shapes, and they did indeed loom in the distance. Now, they were still kept at bay by his size and presence, but as soon as they smelled blood, there would be no restraining their natural need to feed and frenzy. And it did not matter what kind of delicate fin crossed their paths then, they would tear it to pieces.

“If you flee now, you will be chased. This is quite the predicament you’ve exposed yourself to.”

Tommy did not find comfort at the distance. The gap supplied enough of a view of equally dark eyes, deeper than the sea's belly. Hungry like her as well. 

"They are looking at me," he said. 

Their gazes hopped between him and the shadow rolling past. Tommy knew running ended his life. 

His gills fluttered as a few dared to lurk closer. 

"I do not like their looks." A hiss and the bright colors flashed at the met-sharks. "Stick your tongue back behind your teeth or I will tear it out!"

“Do not tempt them,” Noh growled, coiling once more, this time bringing his mass in front of the prince, swishing his tail in agitation and warning. He did not have to give them a verbal form of his threat, they understood enough. This one was his, the shadow above would promise them all a full belly all too soon.

None would risk fighting him over his prize.

“...Stay close to me.”

Under other circumstances, Tommy would have objected to the assistance. Once the mer-sharks sneered from their appropriate distance, he opted to rely on what aid Noh-Varr seemed to provide. Why?

"If you attempt to eat me, I will blind you," Tommy said. His webbed hands pressed to the other's upper back, far preferring to stay at his spot than confront the beasts. 

Soon though, their attention flew to the surface. More, smaller shadows danced along the surface. 

"What is that? The monsters! They...are falling in?"

“Yes,” Noh tried his utmost to control his senses. With plentiful bodies in the ocean’s embrace, there was no need to bully away the smaller, hungrier sharks that went into a frenzy around the unfortunate souls from above.

“They die, cannot breathe below the surface, though most don’t live that long.”

He watched as his kin tore out chunks of flesh and blood coloured the area, tingling every of Noh’s senses, but he kept steady, kept back for Tommy’s sake.

“They would not hesitate to do the same to you.”

Flesh loosened and shredded as easily as kelp to these beasts. Blood suffused the water, calling forth more of their kind to swell the bloody frenzy. 

Tommy cried out, agog with what erupted before his eyes. He tore away, pressing his hands into his face, unable to watch. As the men died, he could not fathom them any less dangerous. He could however understand the terror and disgust against Noh-Varr's kind. 

He was brimming with hunger, could feel his nostrils flare, his fingers itch for flesh, his stomach growl in protest at the lack of food he was getting. This was unfair, to deny his very nature for the sake of keeping one tasty morsel alive. 

“You cannot leave until they are sated...” he mentioned, voice and breath short as his body tensed, every muscle aching to torpedo him into the fray. He felt the merman cower behind his back and he turned to view him from the side, his mangled dorsal fin blocking the gruesome view.

“I told you it was unwise...”

Tommy ignored the admonishment at first, pressing his heels against his ears to suppress the muffled sounds of death. Tremors rocked his arms. 

"I merely came to see you," he said, pushing harder against his ears. 

When that did nothing to assuage his dread, he dared to peer up at Noh-Varr. He knew that face though he never had fallen prey to bloodlust. 

"Why aren't you attacking me?"

A good question indeed. Noh-Varr had no immediate answer that might satisfy the faint horror in Tommy’s gaze, no words that might soothe the expression of a young soul who had seen too much of death and would prefer to curl up in a coral castle for the rest of his life.

He sighed, eyes flicking just once to the frenzied sharks, then back to the merman.

“I know it is hard to understand, but I am no monster. This is how we live. I am not forced to devour whatever is in front of my jaws like a rabid beast with no mind.”

That hardly served as proper tribute to Tommy's aghast curiosity. The matter could not be pressed when the crunch of bones and moans of sated beasts loomed. 

"I do not want to see more. Is there...a reef I could cover under until they leave?" he asked, unwilling to attach the second question that requested Noh-Varr escort him to safety until the mer-shark could assure his safety. 

A reef was nowhere in sight, the darkness stretched away endlessly beneath them, to every direction that wasn’t immediately above them where the lightning still ravaged the black skies.

“Come,” he motioned for Tommy to hold onto his dorsal fin, not because he would not be able to keep up, but because the great white was heading for a current, curling along deceptively empty. To go in without any kind of physical attachment between their bodies would mean separation, which, while it would not affect the shark, would bode very ill for the merman. Noh’s strength was key to riding the current effectively, to steer and choose their exit.

The current would take them to a trench, not deep enough to meet anything Noh-Varr could not fend off, but it would relieve both from the scene and scent of blood. It would also deprive Noh of the ready meal, but he felt himself not giving the loss a moment’s thought. The frightened little prince saw the truth of his kind and there was horror in his eyes, but perhaps he would begin to see what power contained itself in Noh-Varr to resist his nature, or at least not be its slave.

Maybe, just maybe, the fishprince would understand that sharks were simply hunters, not monsters.

Upon inspecting the trench, Tommy fathomed what beasts resided nearby or within. When he ventured deep enough, the sea turned a darker blue, almost as dark as the mer-shark eyes. Surrounded by such darkness had Tommy forget having clung to Noh-Varr’s dorsal fin and what it had felt.

So there, with a final glance, Tommy tucked himself into the trench. No shadows trespassed his hiding spot, and the roar of the sky drowned what sounds the shark-folk made during their frenzy. If Noh-Varr’s moaning and shredding was included, Tommy was glad to have missed it. Shivers remained however and often times the prince grumbled as he hugged his arms, waiting.

It seemed he waited forever, and the sea’s lullabies finally reached him.

In his spot, with thoughts on Noh-Varr, Tommy drifted to sleep.

The mer-shark would not leave Tommy’s side. No matter how far they were from the frenzy beneath the ship, danger lurked in the blacks of the sea and abandoning the frightened merman who would most certainly have never found his way back home. Safety was an illusion confined to those who would ignorantly believe in it and that opened the coral reef to vulnerabilities no sensible sea creature that fought for its survival would consider. Such as sleeping in one place, curled up with nothing but uncaring rock to guard its back.

Tommy was more than fortunate to have garnered Noh’s interest, because the Great White kept vigil throughout the storm, guarded Tommy’s sleep with his stomach rumbling.

*

Tommy could count many ways to wake up to that did not include awakening to a Great White enveloped around him. Panic struck first, born from survival instincts, and that quick analysis Tommy was known for back home served him well; he noted the peaceful lines on Noh-Varr’s face, indicative of sleep.

The Great White had looked over him during his bout of sleep, when he could have munched on him for seconds. Tommy remembered the kiss, and had to wiggle away, patting the mer-shark on the face.

“Hey,” he said, careful and ready to bolt. “Sharky, sharky, your mother’s calling you...”

It was not common for Noh-Varr to sleep and if he did feel the urge to take an excessive amount of rest, he never did so in the presence of another being. His reputation, fearsome as it was, sheltered him from the curiosity of those that might realize him to be less than a monster.

He opened his eyes slowly, vision engulfed by the colourful young merman.

“You...you’re still here?” He couldn’t remember falling asleep, nor how he’d coiled his powerful body around Tommy’s for protection.

Tommy dashed around, full of energy the moment his eyes cracked open. He swam circles around the drowsy mer-shark.

“Well, what was I to do? You were wound tightly around me and I am in a trench.” He shrugged and stretched his limbs, scales still shimmering despite the opaque depth of their hiding spot. “Is this how you normally sleep? In some dark, corner? If you swam any deeper you’d bump into those bright fish I heard of. Monster teeth, bulging eyes...”

“Anglerfish,” Noh-Varr gave a yawn as he lodged himself free of the trench, swimming out into the open with lazy, slow strokes. His stomach howled defiant protest at him for missing out on the meal his kin indulged in last night, but the shiny scales of the prince were no viable alternative.

“You could show a little gratitude. I kept you safe all night,” sharks were never particularly good company, but a hungry one? Not advisable.

Tommy chuckled at the shift in attitude. No doubt a hungry mer-shark meant for a grumpy one. Not intending to be an option to quell that necessity, Tommy minded his business and swam upright. Once he saw the gem’s fingers from the sky reach over the surface, he exclaimed and pointed.

“Look, breakfast,” he said and swam quickly toward a sea of kelp. Fish peered out of their hiding spots, some in schools, other mingling with other types. Tommy greeted them all as he yanked on kelp, intending to formulate it into something more edible.

Noh-Varr did look and indeed found something to tempt his appetite, though it would not be kelp he feasted on. The mer-shark moved with renewed vigor and ferocity, a short burst of speed propelling him into a shoal of fish who tried to wheel away from the threat to little success. The mer-shark tore into shiny scales, blood tainting the water around him as he snapped up several fish, even kept some in his hands to consume like a wild beast.

He cared little for how savage he looked right now.

Tommy had tugged their soon-to-be-meal free when the bedlam erupted around him. Too late, his cry could not deter the mer-shark from slaughtering his companions. Wincing, Tommy turned his face away and willed himself to understand that mer-sharks required a sustenance he forever might struggle to accept.

It ended quickly, and once Tommy glanced over, he noted the blood curling up toward the surface.

“I’m,” he lowered the kelp, “not very hungry...”

The fish were no comparison in taste to the meal Noh-Varr missed out on last night, but they would satisfy his ravenous cravings. Now that he was fed, his mood improved rapidly and he swam over to the merman, curiously eyeing the kelp. What in all the sea was the prince going to do with that? Build something to catch fish or crabs in?

“You should eat, fishprince, you have a long swim ahead of you. What were you doing out here, so far from home again? Looking for more legends?”

Tommy flushed, for that was what had in part motivated his audacity. What would have occurred should he had undulated into a frenzy of foreign mer-sharks. There had been many. Tommy nibbled on the kelp to buy his answer time.

Swallowing the first portion, he kept his gaze averted from Noh-Varr.

“Perhaps,” he admitted. “My...grandfather is very angry with me. I...well, I’m no prisoner. So I escaped. I knew there was an angry sky,” he lied, “but I wasn’t afraid.”

The shark circled again, it was a force of habit that showed how little time he spent conversing. He tried not to show his repulsion for Tommy’s meal, but his dark eyes clung to the kelp more often than not and his lips quirked into disgust.

“Not a smart move...but tell me more, why is your grandfather angry? Are you not permitted to leave your gilded cage, prince? Or was it my stroll through your home?”

Tommy continued maneuvering his body, keeping the mer-shark in his line of sight. Bold, filled with temerity, and as foolish as he might be, he had yet to allow Noh-Varr an eyeful without returning it himself.

Around another swallow, Tommy replayed his grandfather’s fury. Grunting, he dove into another patch of kelp and began yanking at its roots. The strain did little to relieve his agitation.

“Not your stroll,” he said back. “Your...kiss. I’ve not seen him so angry. Though I figure I will once I am returned back home. He’s furious with your kind too and,” he cut off, tucking himself in the bed of green. “Nevermind that. It doesn’t matter. I didn’t come all the way to see what you were up to to talk about my grandfather.”

“What did you come here for?” Noh-Varr swam a little closer, keeping clear of the green, ominously waving plants, not sure how anyone could eat them let alone prefer their taste to a good, plump fish.

“I am curious now...your fascination with my kind must run deeply if you would risk a storm to find me.”

Tommy popped his head out, frowning.

“Curiosity, nothing more.” The excuse ran dry on his tongue. With a sigh, he clung to the kelp and added, “I am a prince, Noh-Varr. I cannot do...I cannot explore, cannot leave my room. I hear of so many creatures and have not seen any of it! How can I rule a kingdom, which I have no intentions to do, if I know nothing of the sea and all her children?”

It was an excuse, definitely. Noh-Varr grinned, settling onto the ground beside the kelp, waiting for the prince’s head to reappear. It was quite clear to the shark that the merman had a fascination for him and whatever denial he tried to cover it with was a frail sheet indeed.

“That is a surprisingly valid point, except for the fact you do not rule anything beyond the reef. Do you think the creatures of the deep care for whose shiny scales hatched where and when? Do you think whales would change their trails because a colourful little fish has decided he is king? You still have much to learn about the sea herself, little fishprince, not to speak of all her children.”

Tommy groaned, burying his face in the kelp. He burrowed down into the sand there, rolling in it as though he could station a home there and remain for the rest of his days. Somehow, his tongue had no leash even in the company of a mer-shark.

“You don’t understand,” he muttered into his arms, watching Noh-Varr’s body emerge between the gaps of waving kelp. “My...grandfather plans to...expand. I...hear rumors of him warring with your kind and others, wanting a pure sea with one ruler at its top. Him.”

“And how would he accomplish that?” the shark watched Tommy’s curious attempt to become a flounder and stuck his head into the kelp, which, if there had been any observers, would look rather amusing.

“There is no warring with my kind. Mer-sharks only fight for territory. Fiercely and deadly, for your kin. Your grandfather’s delusions will have him and his soldiers killed. The sea will not be ruled by anyone.”

Tommy pressed his lips together, as though his loose tongue’s antics would ebb. It proved a futile attempt when he said, “You don’t know the kind of power he has or will obtain within the next moons.”

Unwilling to divulge further information, Tommy crawled along the seafloor, face parting through the kelp to spot the mer-shark. “Listen,” he said with more enthusiasm, diverting the topic altogether, “I’ve been wanting to explore...a particular area. What if you acted as my guide? I would return the favor if you demand something. It will be fun though. Surely even your kind get bored of the same thing, day after day...”

“A guide or a guard?” Noh peered through the waving tendrils of plant, finding more and more fascinating angles of Tommy’s body. One he would like to devour in a completely pleasurable manner. He felt his fin twitch and a shudder ran along his underside at the suggestion of fun. Surely, it wasn’t what the prince had in mind, but the shark saw no reason not to think of it. Given how little resistance the prince showed when he kissed him, he hoped for more.

“I could be persuaded, but what will you tell your grandfather? I would like to swim the reef again, it is an...interesting place. I might even promise not to come hungry, if you engage in something personal with me.”

Tommy’s face and arms breached the green, greeting the mer-shark and his inquiries. 

“Are you mad?” he asked, laughing into the crook of his arm. “I have no intention of returning to the reef so soon. I want to go look at new territories and,” he glanced away, clearing his throat, “the land above...”

He paid no mind to the personal engagement. If he had to assist the mer-shark in hunts or something equally productive, he could endure if it meant he earned his adventure.

“The land above? I think you are the one who is mad,” Noh gave a laugh that had nothing to do with good humour. The lands beyond the sea were fraught with danger, nevermind the unbreathable air above the grasp of the sea. Anything that fell to her bosom was food for her children, as were they food for whatever roamed above. It was a simple, cruel cycle that one did not disturb.

“But I will agree to your venture. As long as it stays beneath the surface. Sharks do not have a good history of reaching for dry land.”

“Yes?” Tommy burst out of the kelp, swarming around the lazing mer-shark with renowned zeal. “Yes, yes, that’s fine. Any interest above land will be done on my own, but I’ll still need a guide to take me there. You have to show me all the spots you’ve been to.”

He grabbed a powerful shoulder and shook. “Well, come on, come on, I am not going to loiter all day while you let your fat gullet take a break.”

The enthusiasm bowled Noh from his lazing and with a swirl of sand, he lifted himself from the ocean floor. This young merman was far too excited to be seeing the dangers of the depth, let alone the swarming heart of the shark territories. Noh wondered if he’d be as thrilled once he met the females of Noh’s species, the only mer-sharks even he would categorize as vicious eating machines.

But there was no reason to dampen the boy’s spirit just yet and the shark smiled toothily at him before setting into motion.

“I have seen many places, Tommy. Just tell me what you wish to visit first.”


	4. Chapter 4

Tommy had far too many places in mind that would suffice as their first destination. He recognized his fickle mind must have aggravated the mer-shark, who had to shift their direction another way. The prince didn’t mind, forever spiraling this way or that, examining new reefs or trenches he had yet to explore.

Ultimately Tommy’s mind guided Noh-Varr to another current, ages away it felt. Here, the water was cooler, and left him quivering in his scales more often than not. Yet it did nothing to dissuade him from exclaiming as the fat, yellow gem in the sky set. From below, Thomas could see the bleeding colors cresting as a whale, a humpback as Noh-Varr told him, traveled forth.

“It’s beautiful,” he said, weary but not quite ready to have them tuck away for the evening. “Look at it.”  
He swam higher up and greeted the massive beast, lazing on its back.

“She’s gorgeous! I never met one before!”

Noh-Varr’s patience was not as stressed as he expected it to be. The merman was curious and inexperienced, as was to be the case with a creature bound to one reef for all of his life. But it was charming to watch him flit around, exploring here and there, paying mind to creatures Noh wasted no second on. And there was no ounce of fear in his beautiful body at the presence of the mer-shark, which was, perhaps, the true marvel of their situation.

He kept his distance to the whale, which already gave him a weary look from a large and kind eye. Sharks ate everything and mer-sharks were no different. Groups had been known to tear a whale apart as it swam on defenseless, alive as it was eaten, for days at a time.

“I tend to avoid whales,” he swam a good distance to keep the large creature placid, “though you would not be so joyful to see an Orca. Always keep clear of orca.”

“An orca?” Tommy’s voice held wonder. “What are orcas like?”

He heard the whale’s voice squeak through the ocean. Tommy smiled and stroked her back, then patted it, and laughed at her appreciation. She was speaking to him, answering on Noh-Varr’s behalf.

“Ah? Really?” He inclined his head as he rolled onto his back. “They sound vicious. I’d like to see one. Could we, Noh-Varr?”

“No,” Noh-Varr did not understand the large creature, though her intelligence never stood to question in his mind. For someone or something that spent at least ninety percent of his life making prey of all manner of sealife, he had an odd sense of respect towards his potential food.

He was not in the mood to end up as orca-chum. His large size might deter every other predator, but whales would make easy sport of him.

“I’d rather take you to a great white breeding ground than to an orca. And you don’t want to meet a white female, they make orcas look like turtles...Getting your claspers torn off is the luckiest thing that happens to you there.”

Tommy angled himself enough to peer down at Noh-Varr as the whale continued her migration.

“Really?” he whispered, imagining Noh-Varr tangled with a white female. A chill danced through the prince’s body, and the image withered in his mind. Somehow he could not fathom Noh-Varr with one such as deadly.

Another sound, an extended squeal from the whale. Tommy laughed and patted her again.

“She asks what I am doing traveling with a mer-shark, if I knew you were one,” he said. He leaned close to tell her something, and by the way she undulated stronger, her tail flapping, one could assume she was laughing.

Tommy shared the sound and gestured back to Noh.

“She says she doubts either white females or orcas are as dangerous as the kind of spawn we could make.”

The mostly pallid grey of Noh’s rough skin turned a delicate shade of red, particularly his face. With a few uncharacteristic, fast tail movements, he angled himself closer to the whale and merman, keeping pace and doing his best to glare and bare his teeth at the large lady.

“As if that is possible. Or wanted! I have no interest in spawn of any kind.”

Noh would just avoid saying he didn’t dare mate with one of his own species, not after the traumatic views he’d seen at the mating frenzies.

Tommy laughed at him, shaking his head.

“To think a beast like you scared of the female of your kind,” he said. With a roll, he slipped off the whale and spoke to her. Then, he pushed off, swimming up to the pink-cheeked mer-shark doing not quite the amble job of intimidating the whale herself.

“Come on, you big tadpole,” Tommy said, taking his hand and guiding Noh-Varr to the top of the whale. “One little nibble and I have the right to poke your eyes on her behalf,” he warned before settling on her hump once more, this time nudging/bullying the mer-shark on it as well.

The shark let himself be dragged, though he found it incredibly odd to be so near to a meal of weeks and not think about sinking his teeth into her. 

His hands found hold on one of the many crustaceous protrusions, fin still moving, never used to being still and letting anything else propel him through the waters.

The whale was nearing the surface, but Noh took no note of that just yet. It was...maybe a little thrilling to ride a beast like this. But he would not admit to that.

“You can tell her I wouldn’t eat her if she was bleeding. Too much blubber, that’s weeks of being heavy and slow.”

Tommy rolled his eyes and jabbed the underside of Noh-Varr’s body. “Can you think of something else besides what you get in your stomach?”

He relayed the conversation to the whale with a smile. “She says she’d swallow you just to prove a point if she has to.” His eyes held onto Noh-Varr, studying the way he adjusted to a situation no doubt he had little experience with.

Tommy had to bristle with pride that he had done that.

The shark gave a chuckle. relaxing slightly on the giant’s back.

“Wouldn’t be much of a point, I know she has no teeth in that mouth.”

It wasn’t his first time seeing a whale, after all. He’d taken banquet on plenty of them, though usually in the company of his own kin. And certainly, they never rode the slow-moving meals. 

Light from above was dancing on the three of them now and Noh was captivated by the shine of Tommy’s scales. He really was a very attractive fishprince.

Tommy thought he noticed the shift in Noh-Varr’s murky eyes as they landed on his body. One of...hunger? But not of the same caliber that would end with Tommy in the gut of a mer-shark. The whale was speaking to him again. He did not take note as he lost himself in the mer-shark.

Then the brightness from above weighed down on him, air ripping them from the water as the whale breached for breath. Tommy gasped sharply on instinct.

And he could breathe it. He squinted hard through the brightness, seeing diamonds littering the ocean’s top. He could breathe the air here. 

His senses went on alert and he wheeled back around to look for the mer-shark who could not have been as lucky.

The leap from the sea’s safe embrace took him by the worst possible surprise. Just as the whale might relish the air she needed to breathe, Noh-Varr’s was ripped from him as he found his body revolting, choking and flailing on the whale’s broad back. He couldn’t breathe! Again and again, he tried, mouth open, sucking at the horrendously dry air, there was too much, too little, and he couldn’t see for the light of the sun in the sky was blinding to his eyes.

He must have been quite a sight, massive body thrashing and rolling over the wet skin of the whale who expunged all the water from her blowhole, with no hurry to dive back down.

“Noh-Varr!” Tommy dragged himself closer, mind flailing with solutions.

Quick to act as ever, he seized the mer-shark’s neck, mindful of his gills.

“Hold on, hold on,” he said, focusing his mind, the functions of his body. There was no guarantee it would work, but he supposed if the opposite could be true...

Shifting the mechanism of his body, Tommy clamped his mouth against the mer-shark’s, sharing a breath through the kiss until the whale saw it fit to dive back down.

The grip on his gills did nothing to calm the frantic shark down, but the sudden burst of breathable air through him certainly did. Noh-Varr was still, entirely so as he tasted merman on his lips, breathing into his mouth, offering life and an escape from suffocation.

He clung with far more desperation than necessary, taking full minutes to calm his mind.

The whale seemed to have deemed his torture plenty, for she lowered herself back into the deep blue graciously. Noh-Varr didn’t tug free from Tommy, even when water welcomed him back with breath and safety.

Tommy allowed Noh-Varr to cling, attributing his desperation to the not-breathing quality of his predicament. Focus went to breathing for them both, supplying most of it for Noh-Varr, as the prince could sneak in air for the lungs he did not know he ever had. He tucked the fact into his mind; no doubt his grandfather knew of this trait.

When they returned to the water, he didn’t recognize that above the shift in their mingling mouths. The angle in their heads softened, and it took several heartbeats for Tommy to note they were no longer sharing breath in the literal sense.

A day back in his reef with the mer-shark demanding a token flashed back into his mind.

With a grunt, Tommy freed his mouth and pushed at Noh-Varr’s chest enough to study his eyes, his own gone wide.

Noh-Varr saw his surprise mirrored in the prince’s eyes and silence filled the water with all manner of awkward scents. That...had not just been a kind little act. Both of them knew that was a kiss, one that technically, Tommy initiated and participated in so very willingly. The mer-shark sucked in mouthfuls of water, Tommy lingering on his lips and mind like no other taste the sea offered.

“...That did not happen,” he declared at last, referring mostly to the thrashing he’d done in his pathetic display above surface. To be truthful, most mer-sharks could learn to breathe for a good five minutes above water, some even ten. But Noh-Varr had enough memories of being ripped from the sea’s cruel but just realm and perhaps, he was more traumatized by those stints onto fishing boats than he cared to admit.

Tommy inhaled deeply, hands still gripping Noh-Varr without conscious thought.

“It did,” he breathed, reminded of the whale undulating beneath them. Data overpowered his senses, and it took longer than necessary for him to glance up at the surface. The matter of the kiss could be handled after the first inquiry.

“I breathed up there,” he said. “Did you know I could? Did...you couldn’t.” His hand reached, delicately ghosting over Noh’s gills.

The mer-shark tried a scowl, but after his performance above water, his fierce dignity could not be restored so easily. Not to mention that Tommy’s touch to his gills was...not threatening. It was soothing, oddly enough.

“It’s normal...sharks don’t...I’ve heard of mermen spending hours above water,” he’d also heard of mer-sharks who spent at least twenty minutes out of the sea, but he doubted he’d ever join them.

“I didn’t know,” Tommy said, eyes tracing over vulnerable flaps of Noh-Varr’s skin. A new world exposed itself for him in that moment before he had taken the mer-shark’s mouth against his own.

“I could have let you suffocate,” he went on, knowing he wouldn’t have done so. He had not yet once considered he hadn’t hesitated to spare the shark of a foe.

“You alright? You flopped around badly up there,” he said, maybe with a smirk. His fingers danced down Noh-Varr’s side to assuage any incoming rage.

Noh-Varr would have liked to swim away from this situation, but Tommy’s fingers were sliding over his skin and it did something weird to him altogether. As if he’d been turned on his back or recently mated, he just sort of floated in the merman’s grip.

Tommy had seen him vulnerable, and that was not good. Noh was an apex predator and he earned the fear and respect his prey afforded him, not the pity of a princely, arrogant fish who’d saved him nonetheless.

“First and last time I will ever ride a whale. Treacherous beasts. I do not regret sinking my teeth into them.”

In response, the whale rolled, knocking her occupants off. Tommy had to laugh at her behavior at Noh-Varr’s comment, but he allowed the whale on her way without impeding her journey. As it was, there remained plenty between him and Noh-Varr to discuss. Perhaps, do.

“Whales are powerful too. Both you and her have vulnerabilities,” Tommy said, returning to the mer-shark’s side. “You look like a wounded pup. You may be a mer-shark, but you do not frighten me. Stop acting like you should. You had a moment. Are you going to weep about it or do something and turn the day into something exciting?”

He had half a mind to just tear off an arm and see how excited Tommy would get when that happened, but the violent urge was quickly subdued.

“Your demands are plentiful, fishprince. I think we have done enough exploring for today and I have yet to hunt. What other danger tickles your fancy? To hunt marlin? Or maybe bluefins? I would like a bluefin right now.”

Tommy wrinkled his nose. Blood flashed behind his eyelids. Of course mer-sharks needed to feed. And not on kelp. 

"Fine," he grunted. "I want to see the dolphins and seals. But do not eat them! You can snack on something on the way there."

He supposed offering an alternative to fish wouldn't suffice. 

"And if you do," he said slyly, swimming by so his tail brushed along Noh-Varr's underside, "you may receive a treat."

The hunger was almost extinguished by the coy promise, especially with the way Tommy’s brief touch sent flares through his thick skin. Just exactly what kind of reward could the prince offer?

Choosing another meal and forsaking the taste of mammal flesh was no easy trade-off, seals and dolphin calves were a delicious treat in his diet. But perhaps, for a taste of Tommy, he could acquiesce to the condition just this once.

“I hope you are not making promises you do not intend to keep again.”

Tommy shrugged and twirled forward, nose to nose with a creature that should have him darting in the opposite direction.

"I see how you look at me. If you settle for sparing my friends and having a smaller meal..."

He understood his attraction to a predator. Leaning close was brazen, but he did so and brushed his mouth over the other's.

Noh’s mouth nearly followed Tommy’s, jaw slightly ajar and teeth grazing over lips that would kindle something uncanny and wild within him, a desire that could easily tear the prince to shreds, or have his body in far more pleasing ways than consumption.

His eyes, already as dark as the murky depths of sea-bottom trenches, grew slightly more intense and the sudden vehement insistence that obeying Tommy’s will would yield a bountiful reward for his efforts was crystal clear to Noh.

“Perhaps you ought to give me insurance you won’t bail on your promise after I spare your tasty friends.”

Tommy felt chill's fingers drag down his back. With a shudder sallying up his body, he danced his hands up powerful, threatening limbs. 

"Primitive beast," he whispered. How easily this creature could damage him. 

He pressed his underside up against Noh-Varr's and held his shoulders.

It was hardly an insult in the first place and the way Tommy’s tongue twisted around the words turned it into a compliment Noh-Varr received well.

There was a tail, twisting with his and pressing tightly against him, he could feel the shudder running down from his spine to his claspers. Tommy’s scales were soft and smooth and the mer-shark grew greedy.

“And yet you’re drawn to me, little prince.”

So close to a predator had Tommy’s scales all a-quiver and heart aflutter. He batted the notions for those aside and stroked tough skin, studied dark eyes. He had experienced something with the mer-shark that he had yet to with anyone else, and being the selfish, demanding prince he was, it was his right to claim more should he see fit.

“Maybe I just like knowing my grandfather would throw a fit,” he answered, keeping his mouth away from Noh-Varr’s. He was not one to offer anything so easily. “Though I have to wonder if you’ll try to have a taste of my blood. Not that you could. I’ve proven I’m faster than you.”

“You lost that race, remember?” Noh-Varr was far less interested in Tommy’s blood than the tight pressure between their entwined tails. He had never studied a merman so closely, nor had the opportunity to trace along the underside of their bodies or consider how they mated. He was pretty sure they were compatible though. There was a throb in his own body now and he felt the powerful need to let himself slip over those smooth scales. His eyes fell half-closed as his hand traced over Tommy’s waist.

“That’s how you ended in this predicament in the first place.”

Tommy would not admit he squirmed beneath the foreign attention. Nor would he say anything on the way heat suffused his face and pooled in areas not so foreign to him.

Snorting, Tommy feigned ignorance. “I am far faster than you, shark,” he said, watching the way Noh-Varr’s eyes half-closed. “I’ve not heard of...mer-sharks engaging with my kind, or any other but their own.”

Would he give himself over to Noh-Varr if he wanted, if he bullied the merman into it? Tommy supposed nothing fazed him, so why should his first time under another’s touch bother him?

A new kind of shudder rippled through him.

“I...think I’ve proven myself,” he said. What was it he had been proving to begin with?

“True enough to your words, I suppose,” Noh had no desire to uncoil this little knot they were forming, nor was he willing to retrieve his hand from where it sought Tommy’s skin.

“I think I can give up a meal if this will be my reward, little prince.”

“I don’t want you to starve,” Tommy said, ignoring the chills still infecting down to his tailfin. He resisted against another squirm and focused on the way in which Noh-Varr’s eyes fell darker and darker still.

“And,” he went on, quieter, “what exactly do you think your reward will be?”

“You,” the mer-shark took no moment to pause for thought, his body demanding a hunger fulfilled without any blood spilled. His claspers already found what they sought, though he did not venture further than a delicate brush against the soft body. No, he would not take this from Tommy without his consent. There was no conquest in claiming a body, yet not the mind.

Tommy sucked in a deep mouthful of water upon feeling something that he could not mistake, another seeking out an area of his body no one had explored. A sound leaked out of him and his grip tightened on Noh-Varr’s shoulders.

To allow access, so easily, it unsettled the princeling. He struggled through it and pieced back his wit. In a violent wiggle, he tore free, distancing himself a handful of yards from the mer-shark. He flashed a knowing smirk at his direction.

“Don’t just gawk like a pup,” Tommy said. “I know how your kind get your way. If you think you’ll have such an easy time with me, however, you are as stupid as you are vicious.”

With a final grin, he took off, tearing through the waters at his highest speed yet.

He was going to shred the merman, right after having his damn way with him. That, Noh promised himself as he struggled to return to the reality of falling for yet another of Tommy’s taunts. What was it that enthralled him so easily? Why could the young prince have such power over him?

Noh-Varr followed without any attempt to make good speed or catch up. He could smell Tommy and find him even if he lost sight of his shiny scales.

Tommy swam, and he swam quick and hard. Not once did he dare sneak a glance back to assess their distance. That mistake earned himself a near label of being someone’s lunch. Now he swam with purpose and until his fin tired out. 

Once he recognized the need for a respite, he slowed down and confirmed Noh-Varr remained in the upsurge of his bubbles. Good. Served the cocky mer-shark properly.

A reef, small and humble, offered solace. Tommy curved toward it, ducked beneath it and stretched out, eyes shutting as a restful sigh escaped him. A few mere minutes, he insisted. 

Trailing Tommy was like chasing down a meal without the satisfaction of devouring it at the end. He kept true to his word and dawdled, not without purpose, but to fill his stomach. There was no large prey so far from the routes of the shoals he usually hunted, but the assortment of small fish he could grab in passing would have to do. 

When the mer-shark found Tommy, he was asleep. Not hidden safely in a cave or trench, but out in the open, splayed among the colourful plants and creatures of the marginally smaller reef. Noh-Varr would not wake him without reason, not when he had such a magnificent view of the merman, blessed with stillness and no retorts about his staring. Gently, the mer-shark lowered himself, a mere tail stroke away from the admittedly beautiful sight.

Tommy slept without the intention to. The long swim and the cozy vibrancy of the reef lulled him into a deep sleep as if he had not for ages. At times he shifted, rolling to one side or the other, at first unaware of the mer-shark observing his antics, the way he stretched or curled into himself.

Then, a twitch of his nose, and something lured him to the surface of consciousness. One eye, then the other opened, and--

“Ah!’ Tommy scrambled back, mind setting on the menacing eyes before he connected them to Noh-Varr. On instinct, he bolted out and around, peering over the reef’s lip. To simply run away from danger never did settle with the prince.

The shark never really looked threatening, just milling along the reef with his eyes making a feast of Tommy’s body. He was almost sorry the prince woke at all. He was much more amiable when he could not spout insults and tease Noh with his glances and gestures.

“Were you so tired from your hard swim to outrun me? I’m flattered, little prince. I thought you wanted to play with dolphins?”

Tommy eased up and swam over the reef, lowering himself to Noh-Varr’s level. He spun around him in slower circles, chuckling.

“I do, and will, though I am amused you found me already,” he said, teasingly close and yet never touching the mer-shark. “And then maybe humans. Who knows.”

At the mentioning of the once known monstrosities-turned-placid-nuisances, Tommy’s expression wilted. He sank away with a heavy heart, draping over the edge of the reef, now fish-less with Noh-Varr’s presence.

“Humans?” Noh-Varr paid no mind to the sudden emptiness of the reef. Idiotic fish. Could they not see that he was sated for now? His gullet was crammed with small, colourful fish and his jaws ached for a real meal, but the sudden crumpling of the prince’s incessant swagger was interesting.

He swam closer, squeezing his considerable bulk onto the reef beside Tommy.

“They’re not exactly good company. Trust me.”

To illustrate his point, he swished his tail in sight of Tommy’s eyes, displaying the prominent scars and hook wedged through his flesh.

Tommy stepped out of his thoughts, hand shooting out to touch the marred flesh. A hook dangled from a fin, definitely stuck. The force that had lodged it in must have been enough to terrify even a creature of Noh-Varr’s caliber.

“They did this?” he asked, fingers tracing each scar, pulling at memories he could not access alone. Perhaps they were monsters after all. “All of these.”

His fingers kept touching, stilling when they reached too close to Noh-Varr’s claspers. Then, curiosity won out the battle and his hands brushed over the delicate area.

The shark held remarkably still at the touches, satisfied to have Tommy’s full attention once more. Scars were nothing shameful to him and his kin. Scars meant survived battles, they proved strength and resilience. One should never trust a shark with a clean hide. Well, most creatures would not trust in a shark anyway.

“No, there are some now dead creatures that left their mark on me too,” he indicated a crescent-shaped thin scar, dotted lines marking it as a remnant of a bite, “an orca had me in his mouth for a while there. This one, a bull shark. This a tiger shark. This one right here is from humans though,” he indicated the hook and the large gash in his dorsal fin, “harpoons, mostly.”

“Harpoons,” Tommy parroted, unfamiliar with the weapon humans would wield. Similar to his kind? No. More lethal, by the stories mapped on Noh-Varr’s hide.

He remarked with a touch to each tale told to him, though his fingers often backtracked once more to those the humans left. Many predators would have scars, he recognized. A glance at his own hide would confirm the lack of marks. Tommy swam with pristine, born beauty, not a scratch on his body, nor a scale out of place.

Slowly, his webbed hands made it back to the claspers, light as they examined them. They were also unlike anything on Tommy’s body.

“You’ve collected many stories,” he said.

“One for each scar...and many more for those I’ve killed and eaten,” Noh-Varr’s words found themselves at an abrupt end, because there were fingers tracing over a part of him that was sensitive despite the rough texture of his skin.

“...Those do not bear scars, which is a mark of my caution around great white females.”

Tommy continued to fondle, eyes fixated on a piece of Noh-Varr’s anatomy that, for lack of better terms, looked impressive. Did all male mer-sharks possess the same thickness and length? Did they...swell in heat? He nearly shuddered at how atrocious the females must appear as and the daring male that tried to mount her.

“Have you...with many female of your kind, then?”

Now there was a subject he would prefer not to mention. Noh-Varr kept his eyes firmly on Tommy’s fingers and the way they ghosted over his skin, over the length of his side, never quite gripping the set of what might look to the unknowing eye like fins.

“I...”

What was he to say? That he valued his life and claspers too highly to mate with females? That he sought out the males of similar mind and found temporary relief with them?

“Not...many.”

Tommy flicked his eyes to Noh-Varr, sensing a disturbance in his honesty. Though given the tales of female great whites, he supposed one would not be too eager to copulate or near the rumored beasts that could tear off claspers.

“My grandfather said my kind, we mate with one partner for life,” he said, rolling his eyes though he had yet to confirm if something in his structure forced him to remain faithful or not. “Either with a female or...male, but he doesn’t say much about that sort of thing. Unbecoming for a prince, maybe.”

At his grandfather’s words, burning and resonating from deep within him, Tommy defied his ideals with a simple touch to the most sensitive spot of Noh-Varr he had yet to touch.

He wanted to give response, ridicule the idea of staying with just one for all of his life, but there was a hand on his claspers now and a deep groan echoed from the shark’s chest. It wasn’t a willing noise, it sought no permission from the mouth it exited and Noh-Varr looked as surprised by it as Tommy. It was just a simple touch, right? It should not coax any kind of pleasurable noises from him.

“I...sharks don’t mate for life. If they’re really unlucky, they mate once and never again.”

Tommy had not intended to stare, but stare he did at the sound he produced with his hand alone. Pride and power surged through him, and he mindlessly (not quite) ran his fingers over both claspers, absorbing every detail that it pushed out of Noh-Varr, be it sound or otherwise.

“Is that so?” he asked, sounding invested in the conversation. “I’m surprised you still have yours then given how...easy it was to turn you into chum.”

Beneath Tommy’s fingers, the shark’s fin began thrashing, but never really hitting the right motion to propel himself out of the grip, maybe it was a case of overwhelmed senses, or the more likely reason given how Noh’s face suffused with a shade of red that stood out horrendously well against the pallor of his body, embarrassment. 

He breathed hard, gills flaring and eyes rolling back slightly.

“I...what are you doing to me?” already he felt the urge to float, to let himself drift with the pleasure or bite into something. 

“I haven’t mated with any females alright!?”

Tommy released Noh-Varr in that instant, laughing with triumph.

“I knew it!” He swam over Noh-Varr, peering down into his eyes, still muddled with a haze brought upon by the promise of mating. “You’re an awful liar. Good hunter, maybe, but liar? You have plenty to learn.”

He swam past the drifting mer-shark and came around, delighted to circle around and see him go all the shades of red one could.

“And I know, if anything, you’ve been with males of your kind. No mer-shark has touched my kind like that,” he said, and despite himself, his eyes roamed back down to Noh-Varr’s claspers.

Despite his absolute embarrassment, it took Noh-Varr several moments to gain control over himself, flipping around and abruptly beating his tail to put some distance between himself and Tommy. This new situation made him nauseous, though he knew his stomach would never relinquish anything it had not digested. Tommy knew something about him no soul did and he knew how to incapacitate him. None of that sat well with the mer-shark.

“...You are a vindictive creature,” he all but hissed, swimming out further from the reef, clearly not at ease.

Tommy continued laughing, easily out speeding the mer-shark with a few purposeful beats of his tail. He blocked his path and touched his face without the fear that had earlier warned him of trusting one such as Noh-Varr.

“I think you are more than I am,” he said, freely touching over Noh-Varr’s neck, tentative around his gills. “If all of your kind are as preoccupied with your pride, then it is no wonder you’ve become lonely sojourners of the sea.”

Before Noh-Varr could dispute his comment, the prince pressed a chaste kiss to that dangerous mouth before drifting on ahead, with a hum and rhythm to his swimming that had not been there earlier.

The kiss both angered and perplexed him. Much of Tommy did, but nothing quite as such as this scene. The boy had little shame and was wise despite his ignorance. Noh didn’t know whether he admired or despised him and his mind waged war against the impulses of his body. Eat or fuck was out of the question. Tommy was too infuriating, too pleasing, too precious. 

The little prince held his attention like nothing before him in his life. Maddening. Fascinating. 

He pushed himself into motion, taking little note of Tommy’s direction, which appeared to be shallow water. Was he hoping to find a sandy bank, or even a beach?

“There’s a difference between lonely and being alone. I prefer the latter.”

Tommy hummed in contemplation, sparing Noh-Varr a look as he did indeed head for shallow waters where the whispers of the sea could be heard reaching onto sandy shores.

“I wonder about that,” he said, swimming closer to the mer-shark. 

In the predator’s company, Tommy found something unfamiliar. Peace? Easiness? If nothing else, he earned himself protection. No other predator thus far dared to encroach into his personal space. 

What it may be, Tommy shrugged off its meaning. They were near shallow land now, bulks of rock erecting themselves. Thicker, crowded reefs met their line of sight, and many fish scattered at the sight of a mer-shark. 

“Come on,” he urged, pressing his hand into Noh-Varr’s, tugging him along closer, ever closer.

He allowed Noh-Varr to remain under the surface as he breached for air again, sticking himself to a slippery rock’s face. His hands played with the texture, shoulders above the water.

He could see men in the distance. Two-legged creatures with no fins at all.

“I might have lied,” he told Noh-Varr, certain the mer-shark could hear him. He dipped his head lower for a moment beneath the water. “I know of this place. My brother...comes around. I think he’s...infatuated with a man. One he saved, you know.”

Being so close to the surface didn’t help Noh-Varr grow comfortable and his grip on Tommy’s tail tightened. The merman was able to breathe up there, but it wasn’t suffocation the mer-shark feared for the prince.

“Your brother saved one? Why would he do that? They’re vicious creatures with no sense at all!”

“I asked him the same thing,” Tommy said, ducking deeper into the water, though not for his own sake. “He told me when he saw how scared the man was, he couldn’t let him suffocate. He breathed air for him.”

He didn’t delve into how it inspired his behavior to spare Noh-Varr’s life. Already he could sense how uneasy the mer-shark was, and against all his typical behavior, Tommy stroked along his face with both hands, drawing him nearer.

“They’re not going to venture far out here. I’ve been here with William before. Though...not this close,” he said, leaning his body against the rocks that reached down its roots into the sea.

“My brother’s crazy,” he said, softer as his eyes linger on Noh-Varr’s mouth. “Though...must run in the family.”

It must have indeed because he gave a final, light tug to mesh his mouth with the mer-shark’s.

Though the situation was hardly one he deemed appropriate or particularly safe, Noh-Varr had no argument to raise against being kissed. Not a hasty, fleeting impression, but a firm touch of lips, one that even allowed him to reciprocate, though he only did so very gently, fearing an exposure of his saw-edged teeth would ruin everything that might have just established itself in this moment.

His fingers moved into a tender touch of Tommy’s sides, mindful of the gills there as the mer-shark molded himself closer. The water was shallow enough for his dorsal fin to breach the surface, but Noh took no notice.

Tommy rode out the shivers and tangled his fingers in the mer-shark’s hair. Noh-Varr felt incredibly warm, or maybe something between them had sparked the heat. Regardless of the generator’s origin, Tommy sank deeper into the kiss, not minding a little brutality in both Noh-Varr’s handling of his body and the nips on his mouth.

One hand dared to trace down, under delicate, softer skin, and there Tommy dragged the tips of his fingers over familiar claspers, already smiling at what the touch would do.

The touch shook through Noh-Varr and stole away his weariness of their location, flooding all senses like a tidal wave. His pleasure had not been fulfilled previously and his body was very eager to inform him of that. 

The mer-shark shuddered against Tommy’s mouth, hands digging just a little harder and drawing the merman’s body against his own, tail swishing in agitation and definite arousal.

Chuckling against an eager mouth, Tommy pressed up against Noh-Varr. He pulled his mouth away, locking their eyes and gripping Noh’s jaw, wanting to observe his reaction as Tommy rubbed his lower body against that precarious area that seemed to knock Noh-Varr’s wit away.

A shuddering breath left him at the sensation, but he paid it no mind given the manner in which the mer-shark’s tail began shifting in agitation.

“Noh-Varr,” he said, dragging him down a little deeper into the water, pushing up a little harder.

He might have breached the surface again, because breathing just became too difficult to focus on. Tommy’s body was firing all of his senses into chaos and he didn’t mind one bit, all he could think of was to hold tighter, positioning the prince a little better. He was straining, claspers full of anticipation.

If Tommy stopped him now, he might just die.


	5. Chapter 5

Tommy did not stop, and probably could not stop unless a force beyond his control seized them and tore them apart. No one knew where he was, less so his family, and the pressure swelling against his underside and within him had him misplace the severity of his escape altogether.

Against Noh-Varr’s mouth, he chanted the mer-shark’s name, allowing the shift. There, he felt claspers all but quivering against the single orifice Tommy had in his lower body. New chills bit his skin, and he knew his scales must have been dancing with all the lights as he angled his body, not quite at the right one, but close enough to relay his permission.

And if he worried the mer-shark doubted it, he guided those larger hands to his tail, allowing them to guide him when Noh-Varr saw himself ready.

The guidance was unmistakable permission and Noh finally allowed his instincts to take over for his rapidly overburdened brain. His tail molded itself closer, bringing his waist and stomach to press against Tommy entirely as the shark’s clasper, just one for now, sank into the prince. Noh shivered, but did not break their kiss, tongue now tracing and exploring the inside of Tommy’s mouth. 

The rest of his tail held tight to Tommy’s, but also propelled them back towards the open water as the shark forced Tommy into a horizontal position, giving a grunt and then a pleased moan when the merman responded correctly and swam with him. He fought back the sincere urge to bite into his partner’s neck.

Mating with a merman was not so difficult, but he could tell it was entirely new for Tommy.

For all its hype, as copulating was among every species Tommy supposed, it at first amounted to a discomfort that had the prince go rigid and struggle to maintain the fervor of the kiss. It did not quite hurt, but the sensation of being filled was new to Tommy, and he would never admit that he had not the slightest expertise on the matter.

To be full of Noh-Varr however, that encouraged him to ease up against the mer-shark’s body, to play with his hair and tongue. Then, they were moving, Tommy forced to swim. Was this how it was done? He did not know how someone could copulate and continue with an easy swimming pace. Admittedly, overrun by sensation that had him cling harder to the mer-shark and whimper his name, the bulk of the steering came from Noh-Varr alone.

A soft, nearly inaudible cry leapt off Tommy’s mouth, burying itself in their kiss. His fingers held tighter to an arm, a side, a back. His mouth pulled away, eyes hazy and searching to find those dark ones.

“It feels good,” he said, and did not realize he had said so aloud.

“I know,” Noh replied, eyes as dark as when Tommy drew that unwanted moan from his lips, though they softened, there was marvel in them now as the mer-shark considered whom and what he was mating with. Out of all the mermen of the reef...he was having the prince. That certainly tickled his pride in the right manner.

“I’m only using one,” he muttered, though the conversation mattered little to what they were doing. Noh’s steering was mostly done and their horizontal embrace had them hauling along a meandering current. Noh-Varr didn’t quite know what else to do, but when he angled his lower half a little to the right to keep them steady, Tommy grew incredibly rigid for a few seconds and his eyes told tales of wondrous pleasure.

Something deep within him had been nudged, and Tommy lost himself in a sweet sound that came from his own lips. Clinging that much harder to Noh-Varr, he misplaced what the mer-shark had been saying, instead pressing up harder, closer, and relishing in that feeling he did not know was possible.

“Oh,” the shudder left him without breath. His eyes somehow found Noh-Varr’s among the miasma of pleasure. Some of what had been said returned to him, and an idea rubbed him in the proper ways.

Pressing heated kisses to the mer-shark’s jaw, Tommy demanded, “Both.”

“Both?” the shark repeated, though his doubt waned with the end of his words, withered beneath the demand in Tommy’s eyes. It was not Noh’s concern if they boy overtaxed himself, bit off more than he could chew, so to say. Though considering how much Noh wanted to bite his unorthodox mating partner, that might be too ironic to say.

In fact, there was no need to say any more. Tommy consented, Noh was willing, there was no barrier.

His hands found Tommy’s shoulders and held him steady as he twisted his lower body so he would not slip out as his other clasper forced its way into the merman.

“Th-That’s-” Noh didn’t grace Tommy with a complete sentence, thoroughly overwhelmed by the sensation of being entirely immersed into the prince.

Tommy grunted, only able to smother himself in Noh-Varr, his scent, his taste, the feel of him wiggling inside so that the prince was fuller than he thought possible. A few more, sweet sounds, and Tommy melted in the other’s grip, body writhing as each sensation elevated him higher and higher still.

He cursed once, dug his fingers into the mer-shark’s and tilting his head back as the pressure ballooned within him. 

“Oh,” he sighed, dragging Noh-Varr impossible closer. “Yes. Inside,” he demanded, “it’s okay inside.”

Noh-Varr was not quite so eager to rush the moment. Once broken away from Tommy’s mouth, his own sought out the merman’s neck, gill-less and beautifully unmarred. How could he possibly resist the smooth expanse? He could not.

Teeth brutally edged like a saw and capable of shredding even through a seaturtle’s shell met Tommy’s skin, brushed over it without yet breaking through the thin layers, which required immense control on the shark’s part. A burden he did bear for long as his jaws closed on the soft joint of Tommy’s shoulder and neck. Though his teeth sank into the skin, even drew blood, Noh-Varr was far from shaking his head or tearing at Tommy’s flesh. No, this was the hold typical of his kind’s mating. A bite that would mar the female and keep the male steady against her as they relied on the current to supply them with breath when their bodies stilled.

His claspers were moving, a short rhythm inside of Tommy that was not typical of the mer-shark’s cousins, but very common among their own ranks. This would bring pleasure to both partners that their fishy relatives would never require.

As the rhythm worked its way into crevices within Tommy he had been ignorant of, he forgot about his kind and their supercilious ways toward the predator currently atop their prince. For now, mermen and mer-shark alike were on parity with one another, united in an act that extended beyond time and species.

Tommy felt pitched between the sensations, more so than when the sea was angry and made his swimming difficult. He clung to Noh-Varr, panted his name or grunted. This he could do for ages, and again and again, over and over until they spent themselves loose.

The peak of his pleasure surprised once Noh-Varr bit and hung to his neck, a frisson of excitement and possibly fear that struck him hard enough to make him cry out harder than he had yet. Tommy dragged his hands down a powerful back, a spasm overtaking him as pain and pleasure mingled perfectly.

It was beyond him to think at the moment, primal urges once ignited impossible to control. Tommy was lucky the mating instinct overwhelmed the need to feed and all Noh-Varr did was jerk inside of the prince, shifting left, then right, finding pleasure in every crevice of Tommy’s body.

He would not take much longer before reaching the prime of his need, arms crushing the merman against him and fingers digging over soft skin.

Were it not for Noh-Varr’s bruising grip, Tommy might have floated off toward the surface, riding out the waves of his first orgasm. Everything tingled, his skin sensitized, and at the slightest twitch within him, he cried out. Still, he angled his head, allowing Noh-Varr better access to his neck, the bite somehow becoming incredibly intimate for the prince.

His fingers managed some function by threading in bright hair, massaging, coaxing, encouraging.

“Noh-Varr,” Tommy sighed, running his other hand over Noh’s skin, pulling him in a little deeper. He had no vigor to tell him he wanted to feel him that much deeper, feel him seeking release harder, so his hands had to relay it all for him.

And what a marvelous job they made of it. Noh-Varr understood the message, his body responding long before it arrived in his foggy mind. All he was capable of was a deep moan, exhaled against Tommy’s skin as he pressed in deeply one last time, body jerking, twisting and finally, releasing. 

As soon as he’d satisfied his need and the wave of delirious pleasure washed over him, Noh’s jaws released Tommy’s abused skin and the mer-shark drifted, gently turning in the current and absolutely still.

Tommy grunted at the twisting and ultimate release, and had intended to lose himself in the mer-shark’s warmth. Not as a cuddler, but there was no harm in indulging in the sensation of being full of Noh-Varr. 

Yet the moment Tommy felt Noh-Varr’s orgasm spilling into him, the mer-shark released him and...drifted?

With a tremble to ward off the lingering daze, Tommy swam closer to Noh-Varr, studying the mer-shark and assessing his state. For a mad moment he figured death had claimed Noh-Varr’s soul. Did all mer-sharks die upon mating? No. It hadn’t been Noh-Varr’s first.

Maybe mating with one such as Tommy had-

Tommy frowned and broke into a grin. No. Not death. Bliss. Eerie how similar the two looked.

“Harmless as a pup,” he remarked, more to himself, fingers dragging over the not-dead mer-shark’s face and neck. He followed the path Noh-Varr’s body took, then took it upon himself to guide the other’s body to a recess in the expanse of rock. There, he curled around Noh-Varr’s body as much as he could, settling his face over rough flesh, listening to a heartbeat.

It only took a couple of moments to wear off and the mer-shark wiggled back into life, breathing hard and deep from the euphoria he’d just experienced. Tommy was close, curled about him in a manner that even made him smile. Not the toothy variety, but one of warmth.

“That was...very, very pleasant.”

Tommy shifted at the sudden wiggle, then eased back into his position with a smile at the mer-shark’s words. 

“I still feel it,” he said, lightly rubbing his underside against Noh-Varr and kissing above his gills. There he settled into the other’s neck, arm draped across him. For a creature always on the move, a little respite like this could be made a likely occurrence. 

“Do you always look dead after it’s done?”

“I what?” Noh had the decency to turn a soft rose colour, but he did not attempt to hide it away. He was so mellow right now, mind and body at utter peace with himself, Tommy and the world around them. His arm closed on Tommy, keeping him as near to him as possible, his face finding drifting tendrils of silver hair.

“I...it’s just a natural reflex, I don’t...I guess I always do.”

“It’s amusing,” Tommy said, squirming closer when Noh-Varr enveloped him. A life beyond his kingdom, exploring, chasing, mating with Noh-Varr, and respites topping it off seemed suited for the prince. Though to say he contemplated over it was an overstatement. He thought little of his choices, merely did them.

“But I can say I wouldn’t mind you earning a treat again,” he said, tracing scars once more. “Maybe again today. Tomorrow too. If you have the stamina to keep up.”

If they could, Noh’s ears would have perked at that statement, or should he take it as a promise? Engaging with Tommy was pretty damn amazing alright. He certainly wouldn’t mind a repeat.

“I have incredible stamina, you’re the one who probably couldn’t keep up.” He offered the prince a grin, rousing his body back to full strength and speed. Tommy still wanted to see dolphins, right? With the thought of another mating, Noh could certainly endure the chattering mammals.

Tommy laughed and rolled out of the recess, stretching and lazing as renowned strength entered him. He looked at Noh-Varr; the mer-shark couldn’t look more sated and at his best. Doubting that, Tommy snuck close to plant a fierce albeit short kiss to his mouth before heading off, shouting over his shoulder.

“Don’t lag behind or I’ll leave you!”

Tommy’s kiss left him almost dizzy and he’d definitely have to rethink about how much power the little prince was gaining over him, but for now, nothing mattered but to catch up to that shiny tail and the beautiful being it belonged to. Yes, Tommy was beautiful. Noh felt his heart tug in ways it never had and everything urged him to claim Tommy, mate with him, hold him, kiss him and defend him from all that sought to harm him.

“As if you could,” he chuckled, powerful sweeps propelling him to the prince’s side.


	6. Chapter 6

Tommy instantly bonded with the dolphins.

He couldn’t cease a smile if his life depended on it, nor did he slow his pace as they proved to be as playful as they looked. Of course, prior to diving after the group, he had spared Noh-Varr a look and offered him an equally fierce but much longer kiss. In thanks? Maybe. He didn’t bother to analyze the urge to kiss the other before bounding off after his new playmates.

The dolphins didn’t shy away from Noh-Varr or warily glance at him, even if the mer-shark kept his distance. Tommy learned they didn’t fear sharks or their mer-shark cousins much, often sparing lives by confusing the predators.

Eventually they took the playing further down an area Tommy had no inkling of, aware that Noh-Varr was behind, but not too far. He planned to reunite after all with the mer-shark once his playtime exhausted itself.

“Look,” he said, pausing to peer up. A shadow loomed nearby. A familiar one, at that.

The dolphins whined and squeaked, convincing him to draw nearer. Humans, they explained, but none so foolish to harm a dolphin that they knew of. From what stories they told Tommy, they often leapt around ships or boats, as Tommy realized they were called, and earned themselves admiring looks from the creatures that had brought Noh-Varr harm.

So of course Tommy followed them, nearing the bulky object he had not that long ago scorned and feared.

Tommy may have been part dolphin, from the way he played and bounded away with the small pod, laughing and chasing and overall making a pretty good impression of being one of the annoying mammals. Noh-Varr hung back, not that the dolphins were terribly intimidated by him once they saw how comfortable the merman was with him, but he did not wish to be drawn into their silly games.

No, he would watch Tommy from afar, feast on the sight of him and think of all the pleasure to be had later.

His meandering good mood came to a rapid end when he spotted the boat. He knew dolphins had a stupidly friendly disposition towards humans, but he also knew how those monsters from above reacted to anything not entirely fish or mammal.

“Tommy!” he called, agitated as he tried to catch up to the pod, “Don’t go near that boat!!”

Tommy heard the warning too late. Less concerned, and more curious as to what brought upon Noh-Varr’s distress, he peered back to see the mer-shark barreling forward.

“What are you going on about? It’s fine,” he said, intending to say more and draw closer to Noh-Varr to assuage his agitation. 

Yet he never had the chance. Something thicker than kelp and with gaps rushed down around him, ensnaring him in a tangle. Tommy flailed, tugging at the restraints. Dread plummeted into his gut.

“Noh-Varr!” He screamed as hard as he could, but saw Noh-Varr no more as the contraption lifted him up and out of the sea’s safety.

The worst case scenario took place right before his eyes and Noh felt his heart plummet to the bottom of the ocean with fear as the net snatched Tommy from his sight. His angered scream would only go heard by the dolphins as the fishermen hauled their catch aboard with wondrous noises.

The mer-shark was almost at the boat, so close to the surface his dorsal fin cleaved the waves. He had no idea how to get Tommy back to the sea, but he would surely try. Holding his breath as best he could, Noh breached, leaping up so he his eyes might find Tommy once more.

Tommy thrashed and searched for a hole to wiggle out of, to no avail. The sun bounced off his scales, and a resounding exclamation turned his attention to those on the boat. Many. Men. Staring at him, gaping at the wonder of seeing something they must have not seen before.

Tommy breathed in the fresh air frantically, clinging to the knots as they kept him dangled there suspended.

“Maiden of the sea,” one said.

That broke their stupor. They chattered and talked their tongues off that Tommy could not understand what the commotion was about. Would they cook him? Peel his scales.

“Let me down!” he ordered, earning silence.

The men stared again.

The only thing that shattered the daze once more was when something leapt from the water, this time a far bigger creature.

“Shark!”

Tommy whirled around, searching for the fin that must have been Noh-Varr’s as it descended back into the depths. Tommy cried out, eager to see him again, but already the men were pulling ropes to hoist him over. They assembled a kind of tank, others frantic to fill it with water as another ordered for the captain to be brought aboard.

Then Tommy was dropped into the water, big enough for him to sink completely below the surface by two feet. It hardly offered sanctity for him.

Noh-Varr did not like what he’d seen. They weren’t planning to keep Tommy just to admire him and throw him back, no, they wanted to keep him permanently. The marvel in their gazes sent the mer-shark into fully fledged panic, enough to make an absolutely rash decision that went against all of his survival instincts. 

He dove down, gathered breath once more and then barrelled towards the surface with all of his might, this time breaching right beside the floating monster and hitting the deck with a resounding, wet smack. The tank in which Tommy was trapped was not far and the shark immediately began thrashing his massive tail around, knocking the screaming men off of their feet and moving across the deck. His lungs screamed defiance, the claws of suffocation tugging at him as he made his frantic scrabble to the tank’s side, throwing his body against it so it might tip, so Tommy might make his escape across the chaotic deck back to the sea.

When Noh-Varr crashed into the ship, Tommy tore his head out of the water, certain he was plagued by a nightmare. Yet the mer-shark remained, a force to be feared and catapulting as best as he could over. 

“Fool!” Tommy tried to tell him to get out, but already the tank tipped and he collapsed on top of the mer-shark, water splashing over both their prone forms.

He whipped his head out and screamed, “Don’t!”

His speech alone must have been what spared Noh-Varr’s life then, as the man wielding a weapon stood stark frozen, eyes bulging.

“It really speaks,” Tommy heard another say.

“Don’t hurt him!” Tommy draped most of his body over Noh’s, refusing to allow the foolish creature to grapple between suffocating and battling these men alone.

The lack of breathable air was sending Noh-Varr into a near paralysis, but he could still feel Tommy on top of him and he was grateful for at least that. He wrapped an arm around the merman, gasping as his air ran out and he was truly on his last vestige of strength. 

With power that he should not possess this close to death, he heaved his body into one last lunge that had them both crash into the side of the deck and he threw Tommy over, only satisfied once he heard the wet splash of the merman reaching safety. 

The men were slipping and sliding towards him with harpoons and fear took over, had those survival instincts he abandoned earlier in overdrive as he clawed for the side, managing to heave his upper body up enough to lean over the reiling.

And that’s when the first harpoon pierced through his tail and he let out an agonized scream he didn’t have the breath for.

Tommy flailed his body as he was chucked back into the sea, less insistent on his freedom and more for Noh-Varr’s safety. He gasped as he sucked in air again, scrambling for a hold on Noh-Varr’s arms, but he could not reach.

He knew the instant they hurt Noh-Varr. Tommy felt the pain rocket through him as though he had been speared.

“No! Stop it!” He bellowed at the men who intended to reach for him and trap him again. Once more, they froze at his speech.

Tommy stared at them, sure they could not still be flummoxed that he could speak. They blinked rapidly and began with their task again.

“Stop, I said!” He said, softer than his earlier shriek. He watched them carefully, though his body ached to focus on Noh-Varr. Again, the men struggled with sense for a moment.

It was all Tommy had and it might have been a product of his desperate imagination. He dove over and to the other end of the boat, breaching and waving at the men. In a smoother tone, he coaxed them close, asking them to come for him.

They did, many dropping their tools and stupidly reaching over without leverage. Tommy yanked on one hand, then another, having them sprawl into the ocean, exerting every ounce of his energy in each tug. On the fourth, he knew he had to rush, and scrambled up a man’s body and near the edge where Noh-Varr lied limp and pinned.

Never ceasing his lullabies, Tommy dragged himself forward, smacking the mer-shark hard in the face, shaking him. He took a breath, allowing a moment to breathe life into Noh-Varr, but two breaths was all he could manage before he continued intoxicating the fishermen with the mere power of his voice.

Noh was pretty sure this was his end. He could smell his own blood, could feel his body begging him to fight, but without breath there was nothing he could do. 

The world was growing dark in front of his eyes, until a voice, so familiar and yet hauntingly strange crossed his senses and the busy hands around him stilled.

And then, there was air. Noh sucked it in deeply, sputtering as he opened his eyes once more and found Tommy beside him, what was the idiot doing back on deck?!

He hauled himself back to the reiling, making sure Tommy was beside him, before he let himself drop, grateful for the sea’s welcoming embrace as he blacked out.

There were men coming to their senses, blood staining him, an unconscious mer-shark, all for Tommy’s shoulders. He never held Noh-Varr tighter as they plummeted together, him holding more than the mer-shark could. Blood stretched its fingers in the water.

Tommy glanced around and found hope in the dolphins. He gestured wildly and they came obediently. None of them remarked on how desperate he looked.

*

Tommy didn’t quite know the source for his power to lug Noh-Varr, with the aid of the dolphins to even more perilous territory. Sharks and mer-sharks were nearing though, that much he knew. Unable to swim fast and unwilling to allow the dolphins to ward off a swarm of predators, shallow waters was the last option.

He had dragged Noh-Varr’s body to a sandy cliff, rolling him onto his side and keeping him under the surface; he couldn’t risk his dorsal fin to be spotted. Kelp and cloth he found along the shores were utilized to tie off the injury and mostly prevent hungry mouths to approach.

There came no respite there. Tommy remained vigilant, heart pounding and mind scrambling with all that transpired. It was his fault Noh-Varr looked as he did now. His own fatigue was a small punishment to pay. He refused to rest, not when he had a mer-shark to tend to, humans to spot out for, and predators to keep at bay.

The injury sustained was a deep one, but not lethal if taken care of quick enough. Tommy’s hasty bandage did a good job of stopping the bleeding and eventually, the mer-shark came back around to consciousness.

With a swish of the tail, perhaps a little too zealous for his injured body, he was awake, panicked for the three seconds it took his eyes to find the prince.

“Tommy...you are alright?” 

Tommy was alive, uninjured, and back in the sea where he belonged. Noh-Varr heaved a sigh of relief, then turned slightly to view his wound. The harpoon had gone through his caudal fin, but at least it hadn’t hit anything vital. He would just have to swim a little slower for the next week until the gaping hole filled in.

Now, for a solitary predator like a shark, that usually meant death. Slow hunters did not catch prey.

 

Tommy jolted out of his scales at the paroxysm that struck what had been an unconscious mer-shark. 

"I am fine, stop that." 

He leaned close and stroked around the injury. "Relax. Here."

With no preamble, Tommy swam closer to the shore and unwrapped a bundle that housed colorful fish. He already mourned their death and knew they would serve a greater purpose. He brought the fish to Noh. 

Being injured and tired only made Noh more ravenous, so when Tommy actually brought him a meal, he devoured it gratefully, though it only took mere seconds to cram fish into his mouth, almost mourning the empty wrappings now as he meandered around on the sandy sea-floor. They were in shallow water, extremely shallow and close to dry land. He still felt disorientated, looked out towards the open for sharks or boats or anything but found no threat to be determined.

“You brought me here?” he spoke slowly, deliberating Tommy’s state. He looked a little spooked, but by no means injured or traumatized.

“You’re okay...You’re okay.”

Tommy watched Noh-Varr eat, not surprised at how quickly he tore through the fish. With a flinch, and before answering, he swam back up and searched for the second bundle. He hadn’t planned to use it now, but he supposed half would suffice. Gathering half, he returned to Noh, fish proffered.

“Yes, I said so, idiot,” Tommy said, anger burning in his voice. “If you weren’t hurt I’d have the mind to spear you myself! What were you thinking?! You can’t breathe and you...you...just to save me...”

No one had done such a thing for him. For the prince, yes, but for Tommy, never. While he didn’t doubt his twin would do the same, something about Noh-Varr’s sacrifice rubbed him along the scales the wrong way.

“Damn idiot,” he repeated, nestling closer to the idiot he did not quite yet realize he cared for so much.

Noh-Varr was much more leisurely about eating the second course, almost civil now as he bit the fish in neat halves and swallowed them with obvious pleasure. Tommy’s presence soothed him like nothing else and his heart, racing with panic not long ago, settled to a steady beat as the merman nestled close.

“What was I supposed to do? Leave you? Abandon you to the hands of those hideous humans? I said I would let no harm come to you and I meant it.”

True enough. It did not assuage the dread upon seeing Noh-Varr nearly lose his limb, and his life. With a heavy breath, Tommy leaned against the very much breathing mer-shark, listening to his chewing and swallowing, his fingers absentmindedly stroking along the other’s underbelly.

“Something about my voice changes their mind. They were in a daze. I didn’t know. If I hadn’t figured that out, you,” he stopped short. Dawdling in what ifs was not a habit he had picked up on yet and refused to start now.

“I might have to say that that gave me enough excitement for the day. You need to recover.” 

“At least your need for adventure was satisfied today,” Noh finished with his meal and let himself curl about Tommy, resting his head against the boy’s shoulder, grateful that he had been successful on his crazy rescue mission and that he could bear the pain that Tommy had been spared.

“Don’t do something that reckless again. Humans are bad news, only good for eating when they fall in. I have...never been afraid...not like today. I feared for you and...I don’t like feeling that. So don’t repeat this, alright?”

Tommy didn’t know what to do with the confession. It speared into his heart and adhered itself too deep. He swallowed his heart down to its proper place and managed to embrace the mer-shark without too much unease. This too was foreign, and still Tommy had yet to think how he had misplaced his fear for Noh-Varr hundreds of miles away.

Maybe the confession had loosened the locks on the prince’s tongue because he was speaking without conscious thought.

“I’m here,” he promised,” and I want to stay here. Where you go, that is. I...don’t need a reason why. It’s what I want to do. I get what I want.”

Noh-Varr bumped his head against Tommy’s cheek, making a noise akin to purring. All the pain in his fin was worth this, he knew that. Tommy was something special. Tommy needed to be protected with all Noh could offer him. And he would remain by the prince’s side, no matter what happened.

Speaking of matters that could potentially be a risk, he wondered how desperately angry the king of the reef must be with his descendant. Surely, Tommy had no permission to be away so long and unguarded at that.

A vision of both of them swimming through the reef, gawking mermen everywhere, played out in Noh’s head. He wouldn’t mind lazing on the reef until his tail healed...

“I know you don’t like to think of it, but perhaps it is time you returned to your reef. I will come with you, of course, but you can’t swim from your grandfather forever.”

Tommy groaned, growled, and huffed. Better than to voice the tangled mess of thoughts he had over his home. Until now he had been sated to pretend he had not come from that massive reef, vibrant as it was sterile to him.

He looked at Noh-Varr’s tail. They could not survive long like this.

“I can forever swim,” he said, “but...just for a quick visit.”


	7. Chapter 7

Returning home ensued the bedlam Tommy had expected, more so when he swam into the reef, arm around Noh-Varr’s waist, assisting his friend in swimming. Noh-Varr was his friend. It felt fine to admit that.

Any who dared approach him got a fierce glare and the shimmer of his colors, alive with anger and warning. No doubt the commotion was reaching his grandfather, but Tommy paid it no mind as he guided Noh-Varr through the reef, into the chambers he used, allowing nothing but a pang for the startled citizens of the reef.

“Your grandfather wishes to see you. He’s on his way,” a guard was speaking, a few of them trailing behind.

Tommy ignored him and lowered Noh-Varr to the bed of kelp and other plump goodness.

“Lie down here and relax,” he said, stroking his face. “They won’t kick you out. I promise.”

Relaxing might be the furthest thing from Noh-Varr’s mind, despite the soft reassurance from Tommy. The last time he’d visited the reef, he’d been strong, full of power, able to take down any guards that would have attacked him. Right now, he was vulnerable and slow, dependent on Tommy and though he liked the prince a whole lot, he wasn’t comfortable with his incapacitation.

“Will you be alright? Do you need me to bite your grandfather?” the mer-shark muttered, leaning into the prince’s palm, tail never still.

Tommy chuckled, rousing the agitation of those watching. Let them stew in distress.

“No biting unless I say so,” he said, then, with an audience still circling them, kissed the mer-shark.

Of course fate and its ill humor thought it funny to introduce his grandfather in that moment with a thick clearing of his throat. On instinct, Tommy recoiled, then reminded himself that he was not the small princeling years ago. He remained fixated at Noh-Varr’s side.

The king looked fit for the title. Crown, scales as bright as Tommy’s, his weapon adorned with gems from the sea’s belly, and a stern upper lip. It did not hurt that he was on par with Noh-Varr’s bulky size.

“You’re home,” he said. He did not sound pleased.

Tommy held his eyes. “Noh-Varr is hurt. He’s going to stay and recover. He’s...helped me. Protected me. I--”

“Silence! I will not tolerate your behavior anymore. Not an ounce of it more. We will speak in private. Now.”

Noh-Varr repressed a keening sound as Tommy followed King Magnus from the chamber, leaving him amidst the king’s guards. He wished his precious little fishprince strength and relaxed as best he could to wait for him.

Magnus only took Tommy to a hallway not far off, but he wheeled on him with the ferocity fit for only a king.

“What goes on in that head of yours, Thomas?! Were you out of your mind? Leaving the reef without permission, you are as reckless as your brother! No, don’t tell me, you’ve lost your mind. You have brought an enemy into the heart of our kingdom and you have the audacity to...to,” the king’s colours were bristling, red to purple and back in a vibrant blaze, “No sharks have business being here. And you will not be leaving this reef again.”

Tommy, from days earlier, would have snapped back, not one to take the tirade like his twin did. They balanced each other out if nothing else, to the dismay of their grandfather. No, now, Tommy had greater purpose. Noh-Varr could not handle life beyond safety, not in his state.

Looking at the spot beneath his grandfather’s tail, and hating he couldn’t bring his eyes higher, Tommy nodded.

“I won’t leave,” he said, unsure if he tasted a lie on his lips. “I’ll...do as you say. On the condition he stays.” He leapt up before his grandfather could shut down the motion. “Until he’s recovered. He won’t hurt anyone, I swear it! I’ll bring him what he needs to eat, I can do it. I...the guards can follow me. He just needs about this big a meal every so hours,” he gestured with his hands, already aware his grandfather wouldn’t let him do the ‘hunting’.

“You’re out of your mi--”

“Please,” Tommy loathed the desperation in his tone. “I’ll do as you want, marry whoever it was you wanted me to, just...please let me take care of him.”

For a moment, he thought he saw compromise cresting in his grandfather’s eyes.

To smooth over his fears, Tommy pressed, “He’s never once hurt me. He isn’t planning to use me either. Why else would he have gotten so hurt protecting me when the humans caught m--”

Too late. The rage burst forth from his grandfather, and the king had never looked so red.

The matter of the mer-shark was long forgotten as Tommy mentioned the one creature worse than the sea’s eating machine in Magnus’ books. Humans. It seemed neither of his grandsons would ever learn that they were dangerous monsters, not friendly, fascinating creatures.

His family was insane not to heed his warning and Magnus would have none of it.

“Humans?! Caught? You were caught by them? You absolute fool, how could you do something so reckless? You’re a prince, have you forgotten that? Between William and your fascination with danger, I am going to lose my scales! He sneaks out every night to visit a man and here you are, jumping into their nets and relying on a shark of all things to rescue you! I have half a mind to....No. You will not go hunting. Your...friend will be fed, if you indeed owe your life to him. But he will leave when he is healthy.”

Tommy had no more words to share. Rather, no more his grandfather would listen to. In a flurry of tail and bubbles, his grandfather stormed out. Instantly, four guards scurried from their spying holes and escorted him, rougher than necessary, back to his room. He didn’t have to look back to know a good dozen must have the place surrounded. No doubt his grandfather had reinforcement coming to handle a mer-shark.

“Good, you’re still here,” he said, trying for humor. He swam over and nestled in Noh-Varr’s arms, exhaling hard. “Well, you can stay here until you’re well.” He cupped Noh-Varr’s face and kissed him. “He’s planning to marry me off now for good.”

Noh’s pleased expression at Tommy’s return soured as he settled his arms around his little prince, holding him tightly and once the mention of marriage occurred, possessively. Tommy was so much more than just a bargaining chip. He didn’t understand the people of the reef and their politics, nor did he find them important. Tommy should be free, and he would be, with Noh at his side they could leave this place together once the shark was well.

“No one is going to marry you. We’ll get out before they even think of a ceremony. In the worst case scenario I’ll bite your bride’s head off.”

Tommy repressed a large smile, not minding the possessive grip. To imagine Noh-Varr disrupting his wedding would not be such a sore sight to witness. A wedding. Tommy frowned at the notion. Ceremonies were not to his liking. Best to shrug it off for the time being.

“Idiot,” he sighed, sinking closer, eyes closing. “Sleep with me. I’m tired and will pinch you if you try to keep me awake.”

And if he cuddled closer, he would not deny it.

*

Sleep he did, and plenty, deeply. Being surrounded by Noh-Varr had that effect he decided.

At least, it had been plentiful and deep until a familiar voice coaxed him from it. Eyes fluttering open, Tommy saw his twin peering through the hole in his chambers. A guard must have allowed him through? Knowing Billy, he tricked him.

“Billy,” he said, rising lightly, still in Noh-Varr’s arms. He noted his twin looked desperate, eyes on the mer-shark. “It’s...a long story.”

“I heard,” Billy whispered, coming closer and swallowing. “Is...he’s waking up...”

Noh-Varr woke with his senses alert, dark eyes open and on Billy in an instant. It was like looking at a negative version of Tommy, or somewhat of a perfect, altered copy. The mer-shark growled for just a moment, mouth open as always when he slept and his teeth on display, arms gripping Tommy just in case this was a threat.

But from the slim size and look in his eye, this young merman was probably Tommy’s brother and not here to harm him.

Tommy smoothed his hand over Noh-Varr’s face on instinct, soothing his protective nature. “My brother,” he confirmed in a hushed tone. It wasn’t until the mer-shark seemed convinced did Billy undulate closer, eyes on his twin again.

“Are you crazy? He’s...look at him. He looks ready to eat both of us.” It was difficult to whisper when the subject of your whispering nestled against one’s brother.

“Me? You’re fondling with...with a human, don’t--”

The bickering went off before either had control, as was often the case between the two of them. This time, Tommy found it ended abruptly as Billy buried his face in his hands, head shaking.

“I need your help,” he whispered after whatever nonsense Tommy had spat at him about getting cozy with humans.

“Help? Why? What’s wrong?”

“Please. Tonight. I have to...come with me. We can sneak back before the guards check.”

Tommy leapt over possible scenarios, none making any more sense than the last for Billy’s sense of urgency. Glancing at the mer-shark, Tommy came to his decision.

“I’ll be back fast, okay?”

Noh-Varr had watched Billy carefully, deeming him harmless after Tommy confirmed his identity and he settled by Tommy’s shoulder, perfectly happy to let their conversation live itself out without any of his input. He wouldn’t have anything to say on the matter anyway.

What he did deem in his interests was Tommy’s declaration, one that had him look uneasy as he shifted to get himself up, despite his aching wound.

“No, do not leave me here, I can come with you...” he flinched when he swished his tail and a very thin tendril of blood seeped from the bandage.

“No, you idiot,” Tommy hissed, bullying the mer-shark down. “Stay here. If you get loose, they’ll kick you out. Not to mention you’ll slow us down.” Painful, but true.

He seized Noh-Varr’s face, pouring his promise into his expression.

“Wait for me. I’ll be back, soon. I need you to rest,” he said, and, in front of his twin to witness, sealed the deal with a kiss.

He did not care who witnessed their exchange, only knowing that Tommy was leaving the safety of the reef put him on edge. What if the prince got caught? What if he was attacked? A million things could tear a merman apart and Tommy was not equipped to handle any of them. Before his...friend could draw away, Noh pulled Tommy close one more time, pressing his head into the crook of his neck and taking a deep whiff of his scent.

“If you’re not back by morning I will find you...I...care for you, stupid little fishprince.”

Tommy pressed back, a shudder nearly overwhelming him as the mer-shark inhaled his scent.

“I’ll be back,” he assured, reluctant to peel away and take his twin’s side. A very wide-eyed twin at that, as if the display had yet to be reality in his mind yet.

“We’ll talk on the way,” Tommy said, dragging the other by his arm. A final glance to Noh-Varr. “I’ll stay safe.” A pregnant pause. “For you.”


	8. Chapter 8

It wasn’t meant to happen. Not that. He should have known when Billy lead him to a crevice scorned ages ago by their ancestors. Yet they went. Yet they paid.

Panic, terror, and a churning deep in his stomach were few descriptors of Tommy's state of mind. Returning to the reef, despite Noh-Varr's presence, was not a priority until he recalled he had expectations to meet, lest his friend be turned over to become chum.

Racing home, Tommy had no break to realize what had transpired. Once in the safety of his chambers, no guard the wiser, and Noh-Varr's arms so near, the tremors rocked him and his breath hitched.

He stared at the far end of the room, eyes blank, mind sucked into a vortex of his own making. He could do nothing but wither to the floor, unable to keep himself afloat.

Resting had not come to him as easily as it should have, without Tommy in his arms, the mer-shark despised everything around him, from the coral bed to the guards in front of the doors.

He fell into a doze, one he would be roused from easily when Tommy returned. And he did, much to the mer-shark’s relief. 

Keeping his eyes shut, he waited for his friend to come floating back into his arms, to settle into his side and cuddle perhaps. But none of that took place, so the shark opened his eyes and searched for Tommy.

“Tommy? You’re back,” He struggled from his resting place to the middle of the room, gathering the fishling prince into his arms.

“What...what’s wrong?”

Tommy clung to the familiar voice, stared up into Noh-Varr’s eyes to root himself into some sense.

“He,” he tried, then passed a moment to regain composure. Never had he swam so hard and fast. “Billy,” he panted, “he...I took him...the surface. Legs. He has legs. He’s...he’s them. He’s a human. He...became human. He’s there, Noh-Varr.”

“You’re speaking nonsense, calm down,” Noh’s hold got a little tighter, hand rushing through Tommy’s hair to suppress the breathless panic in his voice. Whatever happened tonight was not good, not if Tommy was this perturbed upon his return. He sensed trouble, a whole lot of it, ahead of them.

Tommy shook his head, but the touch on his head broke the foundation of his wit. He dropped his head against a broad, rough shoulder and choked on his own voice.

“I saw it,” he exclaimed, gripping Noh-Varr’s arms harder. “We shouldn’t have...we did...the sea-witch. Very real and th-that’s how Billy...his legs, then he couldn’t breathe. I,” he shuddered and lost his breath, “I think I’m going to faint...”

“Breathe, calm down,” Noh was not terribly good at soothing anybody, but he would try his hardest for Tommy. He’d never seen anyone so dissolved and especially not his usually boisterous, capricious prince.

The sea-witch? The creature was but a legend, told to young pups and hatchlings to keep them far from the dark crevices of the deep blue. And Tommy claimed not only to have seen her, but to witness such a thing as magic?

“What happened? Your brother is on land? He is safe? Did you bring him to his human?”

Tommy listened to Noh-Varr’s voice more than the words, breathing in rhythm until he felt the wave of dizziness pass over him. That didn’t remove him from where he was lodged up against the mer-shark.

“I didn’t know what else to do,” he explained between breaths, “so I took him there. I watched from afar. His human took him. I may sound crazy, but...I think he’ll be...safe enough. For now.”

Too much too soon. His mind whirled.

“I can’t leave him there...I...damn it all, I can’t think. I just...need a moment.” Yes, logic. And Noh-Varr needed to recover. There was no point acting recklessly now. “You need to rest.”

Noh shook his head vehemently. There could be no thought of rest with the prince in this state. Tommy looked like he wanted to cry, or scream, or possibly do something incredibly stupid. Noh bet on the latter. 

“Sleep is the last thing I am concerned about. You need to calm down,” Noh pressed the prince against him in a crushing embrace, determined to anchor him to his side.

“If he is with his human...and he is human, do not be concerned for him. It is you you should worry about. I doubt your grandfather will be pleased, right?”

Tommy inhaled Noh-Varr’s peculiar scent, so unlike anything one would find in the reef. Tremors overcame the prince, and stupidity tended to gravitate toward him in times of heavy distress. It was a good thing the mer-shark held his body or he might have bolted out and gone for the surface.

“I can’t tell him the truth.” Tommy already recognized his grandfather would learn of it from him somehow, willingly or not. And what would become of Tommy? The prince didn’t care, but if it impeded in his care for Noh-Varr...

“I’ll figure it out,” he promised. “Just rest. I need you better. If you make it okay, then...things can work out. I can’t give him something to use against me when you’re not recovered yet. I’m fine.”

“I’m not exactly mortally wounded,” Noh outright growled, twisting his tail to prove that yes, he could still very much move. Sharks were highly pain tolerant and he could still swim, thank you very much.

“I don’t have to rest entirely like this,” he turned to undo some of the wrapping, looking at the crust of clotted blood over the edges of the gaping hole. 

“I don’t want to be your liability.”

“Stop that!” The shout came sharper than intended, the smack at Noh-Varr’s hand vicious. He knew he was wound up tight, seizing logic so fiercely when anger, panic, and terror wanted to be at the forefront of his mind.

“You need to rest! Do as you’re told for once!” He shoved at the mer-shark’s chest, grunting to wiggle free to bully the patient back to where he belonged. The bite to his voice was not for Noh-Varr but he received it, and Tommy did not want to be in the same room when he could no longer hold onto his logic.

“Those words from your mouth? That is a joke in poor taste, isn’t it?” Noh was by no means about to assuage Tommy’s panic by obeying his commands. If the boy wanted to flee, Noh would not be the anchor to hold him back. He’d already gotten some peaceful rest, enough to build up a little of the strength he’d lost.

“Just don’t think you owe me safety, I am not a helpless minnow, Tommy, and if you want us to leave, we will.”

“We can’t,” Tommy gasped, angry it didn’t come out as the firm proclamation he had intended it to be. “You don’t know the power my grandfather is hoarding here, at this very reef, now. You’re too hurt. We’ll get caught and...no, you need your strength.”

As did he, but Tommy adjusted long ago to not caring for himself. And fibbing to himself didn’t hurt matters either.

“Stay here,” he tried again, shoving a thick chest. “I’m,” he stared into Noh’s eyes, “I’m going to see the witch again.”

“Tommy!” Noh-Varr lunged, flattening the prince to the ground, concern marring his features, twisting them into a fierce frown. His teeth flashed as he spoke, agitation flaring his gills.

“Do not go back there. If you know she is capable of magic, there is no telling what could happen! You cannot go alone!”

Tommy confronted how much more powerful Noh-Varr truly was. Being pinned by a massive size and flashed a denticulated maw made the prince restless, though he could do nothing but remain still underneath Noh-Varr’s mounting concern.

“I’m not afraid of her,” he said, half-lying. There had been something familiar about the witch, in her face. At the time of his first meeting, other emotions barred away his curiosity and recognition of what made her...too familiar.

He wanted to go. Noh-Varr would not let him. Given the current predicament, the mer-shark won, if by sheer force alone.

And faced with an obstacle Tommy could not budge, his underlining resolve quivered and snapped.

A shameful sound escaped him as he pressed his hands hard into his eyes, willing the burn to leave him be. He never cried, and to do so now would humiliate and hurt him in more ways than he felt hurt now. After all, Billy was alive, wasn’t he? Surely he was. But a human.

Reminded of the painful transformation his twin underwent tore out another sound from him, this one more pathetic and his hands pressed that much harder against his face.

Noh-Varr knew Tommy was breaking beneath him, not his body, but soul, wilting away by the shock of what happened. Noh felt his own heart wither at the noise, wanting nothing more than for Tommy to stop it, to return to his strength, to be beyond being a fragile mess.

He didn’t let up, instead staring down at Tommy who would not look at him. Hands pressed to his face, the noises kept coming, again and again until Noh was sure Tommy was indeed crying. 

Only then did the shark ease up to give the prince space, now that he was sure he wouldn’t go swimming headfirst into danger. Better to have him deal with his emotions right here, where he was still safe.

Tommy’s cries attracted the attention of the new shift of guards beyond the door though, and as they stormed in, they got the entirely wrong impression. Their prince, on the floor, covering his face and crying, the shark looking oddly flustered and ruffled, now growling at them and flashing his teeth in warning.

“Your highness! Did he harm you!? Someone seize him!”

Tommy startled at the influx of noise. Choking on his own crying, he jerked to a corner in time to see guards coming over Noh-Varr like a riptide.

“No, stop that!” The oomph to his words wilted at the crack in his voice. 

He had the temerity to smack a guard in his face when he tried to grab the prince to, presumably, drag him to safety. “Idiots! He didn’t touch me!”

Worming his way through the horde, he scrambled for Noh-Varr, touching his arms and pressing close to him, more to soften the damage that the mer-shark could unleash on the guards than the other way around. Aggravating the mess were his hiccups and extra salt tainting the water around his face.

“Your Highness,” one guard, a brute compared to the others, said, “you’re not allowed to spend the night with this...creature. Orders.”

“You c-can take your orders and shove them up your orifice,” Tommy snapped back, tried to at least. He clung harder to Noh-Varr’s arm, ego writhing in pain. If he were to break, he’d far prefer it in here than out there.

“I’m afraid you don’t have a choice,” the same guard said.

At the same moment, a shadow lurked by the opening in Tommy’s chambers. Glancing at it, Tommy saw it again, this time closer. A seal? Not a typical one. Spotted, bigger, teeth. In the distance, he heard a whine of a whale, but not any kind one he met. 

“What is all this?” he demanded.

“Reinforcement, for your protection, nothing more, Your Highness.”

The sound came again, in twos it seemed, and Tommy cried out at the sensation of massive creatures cresting over the reef, the pressure of their presence suffocating his lungs in the moment it took for them to pass over.

Noh-Varr was distracted from the occupation of baring his teeth and nestling around Tommy by the noise. The shark grew rigid for just a moment, almost tempted to start floating, but his mind kicked in soon enough. With a lightning turn, he tightened every bit of kelp he could fixate on his tail, before darting around the room, more agitated than Tommy had ever really seen, apart from when he swam out to the boat with the dolphins.

“Orcas?” he muttered, gills flaring and body pumping, his fin slapping guards left and right as he felt trapped by the room. It wasn’t that he was deathly afraid of orcas, not when he was healthy, in his own territory and heard their deep calls miles away.

But entrapped on a reef with a busted tail, bleeding and weakened? He might as well filet himself.

Tommy didn’t quite know or want to understand how he remained conscious given the overload of input one night had already thrown at him. Perhaps his unsettling fixation with Noh-Varr kept him afloat, enough to stay at the mer-shark’s side, holding him tighter as best he could as guards prepared to lunge at the agitated creature.

But at the word of orcas, Tommy lost all sense of touch.

“Orcas? They’re here?”

“To assist in your grandfather’s grand design, of course. And to protect you.”

“You mean keep me prisoner! They...they would devour me!” Tommy flashed a look at Noh-Varr. Would they chew on the mer-shark’s corpse should he make the slightest escape? Yes, he decided. They would. 

“Not to eat you,” the guard went on, but Tommy ignored him. 

He was far more occupied peering out the hole, searching for signs of one and how close it swam. He swore he had heard at least two of them. Plans for escape, however nascent, died, leaving him cold.

“I’m not leaving,” he found the vigor to say. “Not with them around. I’m not leaving my friend alone.”

“But orders-”

“I said get out!” Tommy snatched whatever objects he could in his chambers, shoving them against guards, trying to bully them out. “Go away! Get out!”

The guards saw their duty fulfilled, clearly the only ones in danger of being assaulted by the mer-shark were they themselves, so there was not that much protest to leave. Soon enough, the prince would be pried out of the chamber and it would be sealed, just like the king ordered. No other opening was big enough for the shark to leave through so if worst came to worse, they could simply barricade the window holes and wait until he starved to death.

There was no calming Noh. His bandages had long since come loose and ever since Tommy set him ‘free’ he’d been swimming back and forth, gills fluttering and heart pounding. Eventually, he did take an eyeful of the sight outside. And immediately thrashed away from the large black and white shape that swept by the opening.

“I’m dead. This is a trap. They’re gonna let the orcas do their dirty work.”

“No!” Tommy rushed to Noh-Varr, strength pouring into every scale the more agitated Noh-Varr became. “I’d let them have me first before you. They won’t take you. I swear it.”

The mer-shark remained uneasy, distress crossing lines on his face. Tommy seized his face hard and forced their eyes to meet. “Look at me. Look. I won’t let them hurt you, Noh-Varr.”

It seemed their decision had been made for them.

“We have only one solution. If I stay, they’ll take me away from you. If I try to talk to my grandfather, they’ll just grab me away then.” He tightened his grip. “The witch.”

To have them both face the witch and her whims opened pathways of their life that could end in misery, or worse. To not see her, however, certified their early demise; Tommy would not wait to confirm the first task of these reinforcements. 

“The witch?” Noh failed to see how the sea witch would get them out of this predicament, but his heart did stop trying to fly from his chest with Tommy’s reassurance. Not that he entirely believed Tommy could talk his way out of what could be called a guarded prison, but he certainly had the gall to try.

“How? When? They’re right out there and I can’t smash through these walls.”

Good questions. Valid, too. Tommy released Noh-Varr and swam to the window once more, studying the area. If he formulated a plan too late, his grandfather would catch wind of his refusal to leave and drag in more force to get the task done.

But Noh-Varr could not squeeze through the hole as Tommy could.

“I need to go alone first,” he said, peering over. “I have to. I can sneak away. You’re too big to do it. But I’ll come back, okay? I’ll find her first.”

Noh-Varr did not like this plan one bit, but what choice did they have? Tommy at least knew the orcas wouldn’t attack him, nor could they catch his flitting form. It was the only chance they had and Noh knew the boy would not break his promise. Before Tommy could escape through the window, he pulled him close, pressing their lips together in a harsh, desperate kiss.

“Be careful. Please.”

Tommy returned it, pulling hope and strength from it as he offered his sincerity in return. His attachment to the mer-shark was unusual, powerful, yet now was no time to dawdle in the whys of it.

*

Alone, the witch’s cavern had been more barren, desolate, and riddled with corpses of unfortunate folk than Tommy recalled. Having escaped proved trickier than planned as well, with the creatures, the orcas, circling the reef. Their massive size and Tommy’s speed, by hairs of a second, had allowed him to flee. This once. 

He knew he wouldn’t be able to again, not with his grandfather locking him up.

Upon having found the witch again, she looked to have been waiting for him, smiling, a sad kind of pull to her lips. She embraced him, touched his face, spoke of how handsome he was now. Tommy shook off all feelings related to it, and hated how he curled into himself.

“Help you?” she had whispered, curling around the room like the serpent she was. “If not you, then no one.”

In return, he would offer her something of value. What it was, she did not say, but insisted it would arrive to her at the right time. Tommy, foolish as he was, eagerly accepted the terms and the pouch she gave him. A tug and its contents would suffuse the reef with a spell, lulling all to sleep for the time it took for the prince and his companion to flee.

So Tommy had abided by her word, watching the tendrils of black liquid enter the reef. Poison it looked like, but once he inspected the first fish, he confirmed it was merely asleep.

Joy and hope urge him forward, even the orcas above him rolled about in a deep slumber. Tommy hurried to the gap in his chambers, still mindful of any alert eyes.

“Noh-Varr,” he whispered, clamoring in. “I did it!”

Noh had been agitated if not panicking for the entire time his companion was gone, rushing around, circling like a mad predator waiting for imaginary prey.

Tommy’s voice from beyond the gap had him shooting towards it, cramming his head close so he could inspect his precious prince. He looked unharmed, complete. So maybe the witch had been kind, though he very much doubted such a wicked creature could summon kindness from her black heart.

“The guards, are they...down?” he whispered hurriedly, already preparing to barrel through the doors and be on his way with Tommy at his side.

“Asleep,” Tommy confirmed, taking the hand he had missed. “Not for long though. We have to leave. I don’t plan to return. I’m not part of this any longer.”

Though it was a lie he did not yet taste. His grandfather planned to conquer all stretches of the sea with an army no one had yet fathomed. Eventually, escape and freedom would dwindle into captivity and punishment.

“This way,” he said, such gruesome fortunes not capable of reaching his mind. With Noh-Varr’s hand in his own, they dove through the palace carved into the reef, then out, and beyond the kingdom, never stopping even when it was a speck behind them.

“Are you okay?” he asked at last. Up until then, he had feared speaking would shatter the sleeping spell. “Can you swim a little farther? There’s a boulder leading up to shallow water. There are places to rest there, and the bottom is deep from the surface. Can you make it there?”

Escaping the reef was a relief Noh had not counted on and with Tommy’s hand in his, he could easily ignore the pain in his fin and push onwards, keeping pace with the merman relatively well. 

When the eerie, sleeping kingdom lay behind them, Tommy broke their silent spell with concern that had Noh’s heart warm for him.

“I’m okay, I’ve had worse, remember?” he indicated his scars as they slowed their pace. Shallow water was never what he considered safe, but Tommy probably wanted to see his brother before they took off to find safety in distance.

“Good,” Tommy said, working through a smile. 

True, he ached to see his twin, but they were in the opposite direction of where his love-sick brother currently resided, peacefully at that Tommy hoped. For now, he made do with acknowledging they all remained alive and mostly in one piece.

His eyes continued to flick to Noh-Varr as they swam, slower, with purpose but no rush. They could rush later.

“Noh-Varr,” he said suddenly, “what you’ve done...for me, that is,” he trailed off, not one for sentiments. The boulder in his chest would not heave off until something became of what he wanted to say.

In the end, Tommy settled for pausing in their strokes. Facing the mer-shark, he took his face in his palms, drawing him close for their deepest, most sensual kiss yet.

Though this was hardly the time to take moments for kissing, Noh-Varr yielded to Tommy’s need without any resistance, sinking into the kiss as if he was suffocating once more. His hands clung to Tommy’s body and though they had not spent much time together, he felt irrevocably linked to the prince.  
It felt right to do anything in his power to protect Tommy, to be close to him. Never before did he consider being around anything for more time than necessary to hunt, but Tommy took all that resolution and threw it beyond the ocean. 

“Tommy...I don’t know what this is,” he guided the prince’s hand to his chest, where his powerful heart thundered beneath the skin for the merman, “but...I would do anything for you.”

Tommy opened his eyes, meeting dark, bottomless ones, at least to most. Deep within, Tommy picked up the glimmer of something within Noh-Varr. Something that stretched beyond intelligence or, well, whatever else it might be. It sparkled brightest around him though, that much he knew.

When he felt the heart beating beneath his palm, Tommy thought it might leap out and jump into his grip right then.

“Yeah,” he said, drawing close for another kiss, leaving his hand on Noh-Varr’s chest. Without fully pulling back, he said, “Guess I’m stuck with you.”

He didn’t have to say he felt a similar feeling. The way he kissed Noh’s mouth played with the hairs at the nape of his neck, and rubbed over the spot where his heart was said everything.

But the spasm that took over him said something else.

Startled by it, Tommy pushed off Noh-Varr, waving off any concern the mer-shark might wash over him.

“Sorry,” he said, “I just felt a little-Ah...!”

The spasm hit him again, this time paired with a searing burn that went through him with directionless ruthlessness. He cried out again, a choking, gasping sound and the scream only came out when the pain exploded down his tail, blinding him with its force.

The peace of the moment came to a brutal end as Tommy tore away from him and twisted in pain. Noh-Varr’s eyes widened as he scanned the boy’s body, could find no injury or attacker, nothing he could fight or bite or kill to save his precious prince from the pain.

“Tommy! What-”

His eyes widened further in horror as he watched the gills on Tommy’s sides grow smaller, thinner, until they disappeared into a smooth, uninterrupted expanse of skin. And his tail...in front of the shark’s black eyes, Tommy’s beautiful scales disappeared, his fin split, his entire, powerful tail....

Became human. Soft, pale skin and two extremities entirely unsuitable for swimming appeared and waved in the water.

Noh didn’t have time to question anything, he knew what happened to humans when they stayed beneath the surface. He surged forward, grappling at the prince and rushing him up, up to where no sunlight played on the water now, but the silvery pallour of the moon. 

Tommy didn’t know anything but pain and fear. The more pain, the sharper the fear. Then, he was gasping for breath, hands flailing, fingers...moving and bending in ways they couldn’t before. His tail, its power, gone, stripped to something feeble and stick-like, failing him.

He didn’t recognize the force plowing into him and carrying him up was Noh-Varr. Pain exploded in his chest, dotting his vision. He hacked and gasped for an eternity when fresh air pooled into his lungs. 

Panting and alive, Tommy clung to Noh-Varr’s body. It proved awkward, the mer-shark requiring his head in the water, but somehow the force of his body balanced itself out allowing a shaken prince to keep his head above the surface. In the distance, the moon guided them to a shore.

It must have been a panic attack, Tommy figure, unable to voice this just yet. He felt light, far too light, and yet the lack of strength in his arms had him trembling as he held onto Noh-Varr, one hand gripping the dorsal fin.

“Hand,” Tommy said. He stretched it out. No scales. No webbing.

Panic clawed up his back, snapped his spine. He cried out, partly in alarm when they bumped the shallow beach enough for him to sit without assistance. He scrambled over his face, his arms, no fins, no colors. All white as the moon, pale, soft, vulnerable. 

And legs. Tommy saw the extremities make bumps above the surface where the joints protruded. He stared at them, his breath coming quicker. 

This couldn’t be happening.


	9. Chapter 9

A scream that could have blown the moon out of her bed ripped out of him. His hands scratched and squeezed the abominations attached to his torso. No tail, no scales, where was his tail? Where was any of him?

Noh-Varr felt helpless, though he was doing his best to stay calm, it would do Tommy no good for him to start panicking too. He concentrated on getting Tommy to shore, though it meant partially beaching his massive body. As soon as he found a comfortable slip of deeper water close enough for him to watch Tommy from beneath the waves, his heart broke for the prince. This must have been the witch’s doing, that vile creature. Noh-Varr swore to tear her to pieces for this outrage.

Tommy was human. What that meant, he couldn’t fathom, nor could he share the anguish Tommy must feel. All he could do was to softly bump his legs, to reach out and grasp those thin fingers to keep them from harming himself.

“Tommy,” he called, unaware that the boy could probably not hear him through water and air.

A familiar hold on him and a muffled sound. A voice? Tommy focused his frayed attention, finding the lump in the water to be Noh-Varr.

“Noh-Varr,” he said, because it must have been the only thing to root him. His eyes burned hotter in the air, the water streaming down his face feeling unnatural, as foreign as the limbs on him that still burned and needed to be torn off.

He pinched his eyes shut, ashamed and horrified. He failed to repress the sounds that dribbled out of him. Still, although shakily, he rolled onto his side, unable to use his legs, and draped an arm over as much of Noh-Varr as he could.

He allowed half his face to touch the water, to rub Noh-Varr’s smooth skin in the right direction.

“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” he said.

The mer-shark could have cried with frustration, all he wanted to do was to hold Tommy and hide him away from the cruel world, and yet he couldn’t. Only now was he beginning to realize Tommy had been ripped from him.

“I know...Tommy,” he sounded more desperate, pushing more of his body onto the side, to give Tommy his anchor, to hold him somehow and make this all go away, to have that beautiful tail return and his prince by his side in the deep blue.

“That witch is as good as dead. I will rip her arms out and force her to put you back. I’ll make this right Tommy,” he pleaded with destiny now, rather than the stricken prince.

Tommy accepted the position, a piece of his ever-quick mind tucking away Noh-Varr’s tenderness. This creature was no monster, mindlessly gnawing at corpses or lunging at any formidable meal. Noh-Varr had spared him, saved him as well, and looked at him with eyes Tommy found more beautiful than the dots in the sky.

Yet to crumble now and shrivel up was not in his nature. Bottling up his fear and wishing he could cast it to the sea to have her do with it as she willed, Tommy stroked along Noh-Varr’s body, as best he could.

He planted a shaky kiss to his dorsal fin, wincing at the sound of footsteps not far off. Men. Maybe they had seen his body? Would they know he had been a son of the sea?

He knew one thing, and it entailed Noh-Varr’s fate.

“Go,” he whispered, cracks jarring through his heart. “Go, or they’ll come after you. You have to and hide. Now.”

Noh wanted to be stubborn and refuse Tommy’s demand, but there was a line between bravery and plain stupidity and it had him rolling his body off of the sandy bank after bumping his head into Tommy’s new legs one more time. His dorsal fin parted the waters as he swam out to sea, into the depths that would hide him. And leave Tommy all alone.

He lingered beneath the water, circling beneath the surface, utterly agitated. If the men took Tommy away, he’d never be able to follow them.

Tommy gathered the shards peeling off his heart and stowed them away. Now came the time to prove his resolve, for Noh-Varr’s sake if not his own. Curling into himself and crying would not alleviate the situation, but it certainly gave him leverage as the footsteps followed a curious albeit gentle voice.

“Hey,” someone said, sounding closer.

Tommy kept his defenses up, portraying a harmless creature, which he probably was but would not admit. A glance showed him a man, taller than him, dark hair, no menace in his eyes. Tommy didn’t abide by that though. Humans were notorious for their manipulation from what he gathered.

“Are you hurt? What happened? My God, you look a mess.” The voice came closer, this time with a coat that went around Tommy. 

What did happen indeed. Tommy opened his mouth, refusing to peek at where Noh-Varr would be. Suddenly he wished he had made the mer-shark promise to return to this spot same time the next day. 

Nothing intelligible came from him. 

“Where you lost at sea?” the stranger asked.

Tommy figured it a good excuse. He nodded, accepting the aid. Instantly he wobbled and cursed the stupid legs full of land. The man steadied him, then realized the futility in Tommy’s attempt at walking. He scooped him up entirely.

“My name is Nathaniel. Here, let me get you to my place. It’s not far. You’re freezing.”

Tommy shivered, but he didn’t care if he was cold.

The mer-shark couldn’t see what was happening at land and the unspoken promise to Tommy to stay out of sight weighed heavily on him. Noh circled slowly now, he didn’t know how long he’d waited but his fin was aching. Nothing edible swam in these shallow waters, the fish keeping well clear of him. He’d wasted some time examining his wound and redressing it with kelp. He could not afford to be bleeding any time soon, not when his mind and heart were above the waves and full of fear and longing.

The rays of sunshine fell onto his hide now, danced beautiful patterns on his grey skin and painted the waters around him azure. Noh held his breath, raised his head above water, but the shoreline was still empty.

He’d waited all night, but Tommy was still gone from his sight.

Too long away from Noh-Varr turned the prince ill. Were he not occupied with so many thoughts, he might have marvelled at how a mer-shark could uproot his mind and permanently reside there. Was Noh-Varr hurt? Did he miss Tommy as much as he missed the mer-shark? It didn’t matter if he did, it shouldn’t. 

Tommy still wondered.

Nathaniel proved to be a reasonable creature. He didn’t hurt Tommy, and was gentle to study his legs when he realized his newfound companion could not walk. He figured Tommy a mute and the prince thought it best to play along. The less he said, the better.

He was washed (saltless water upset his stomach), was fed (aggravated his stomach), and given clothes (it rubbed strangely against his soft skin). Eternities passed while the sun rose and dove over the sea’s body. Tommy learned about Nathaniel. A captain of a cargo boat, traveled the sea often and respected her might.

What things Tommy could reach, he touched, fascinated among his dread. Nathaniel explained anything he touched and assumed, with Tommy’s complexion, he was from a developing country across the sea. Close enough.

When the moon settled her weight high in the sky and Nathaniel slept, Tommy knew he had to return to the shore. It was nearby. Nathaniel claimed this was one of a few cottages spotting the shores of the world he traveled--not his actual home.

It was stupid, but Tommy dragged himself out cautiously, first on his belly, and then on his hands and knees as he established some sense of momentum with his legs. Blasted things.

He repressed his fresh terror and crept along the sand, crying out with frustration when it slowed his progress.

“Noh-Varr?” he called as hard as one could in a whisper. Desperation returned to him. He crawled and navigated the peninsula, touching the water, splashing lightly and praying, hoping, the mer-shark had not abandoned him.

He had not. Noh-Varr only made one trip to deeper water, and that was to hunt. The meal he’d struck down was not nearly enough to sate him, but it assuaged his burning hunger enough to let him return to shore. 

Like a dog called to its master, the shark wheeled from where he waited upon the splashes in the water. He couldn’t hear his name being called, but Tommy’s human scent lingered heavily in his nose.

His dorsal fin breached the waves to show his prince he was right here, on his way.

Tommy was still in water too shallow for him to reach, so he circled once or twice out where the water would come to Tommy’s chest and allow him to breathe.

Tommy broke into a ragged half-laugh, half-shout at seeing the fin. With unsteady limbs, he lowered into the water, cautious to stay where the water only reached his chest. Another time he could mourn how cruel the sea’s sneering was at him in this new body.

“Noh,” he sighed, reaching out, touching familiar rough and smooth areas of his friend. He lowered himself, hoping his voice could be heard now. “You’re here. I thought you would have left. I...I don’t know...if I can,” he pinched his eyes, gathered himself, “this body. It hurts everywhere. What do we do? I...I couldn’t let you see the witch again. She’d trick you too, yet...what? To be human.” No, that didn’t terrify him as much as--”To be a world from you. I won’t stand for that!”

Noh nearly barrelled him over when Tommy was in reach, but mindful of the fragile balance the prince had on his new extremities, he settled for twisting his bulk as close to Tommy as he could, almost entirely wrapped about the freshly baked human.

“I still want to kill her...But I didn’t want to leave until I knew you were safe. I waited...all night and day,” he paused to nuzzle his head against Tommy’s hip, sticking as close to the surface as he dared in order to be heard.

Tommy didn’t know how, but he laughed. Not as powerful and full of mirth as his typical ones, certainly far from the laughter he shared with the dolphins. Still, it was a laugh. Noh-Varr’s affection had an effect on him, a good one.

“Don’t kill her. I’ve done enough foolish things for the both of us,” Tommy said, rolling onto his side, arm around the mer-shark again. He did his impression of a nuzzle without sucking in water down his lungs.

For a moment, the waves lulled him to a calmer state, as if she had forgiven him.

“At least you’re fine,” he whispered, hand trailing to Noh-Varr’s fin. “My...I don’t know. I always went forward, not caring where I went. I don’t know where to go now, Noh-Varr.” He didn’t admit to his fear, but the mer-shark couldn’t have missed it in the way Tommy pressed closer, wishing he could tuck away into the predator’s body.

Noh listened carefully, sucked up the sweet sound of Tommy laughing like it was balm to his aching soul, bathed in the warmth of his touch. And yet, there was nothing he could do, was there? Tommy was on land, Tommy was human...never again would he race against the most beautiful tail the sea had seen, never again would drift through a current, motionless with bliss and all of it tore his heart out. He no longer felt any desire to eat.

“To your brother? He can help you, shelter you...I won’t worry as much if you’re with him...and I will see the witch, no matter how dangerous she thinks she is.”

Tommy hugged the mer-shark tighter, as if he had the power to prevent him from diving deep down into the witch’s cavern. He lacked the vigor to argue now, nor did he wish to spend his precious time picking fights. Soon, he told himself, they could return to their banter. Right?

“I...I don’t know where he is. I think the opposite direction? The man, Nathaniel, has a boat, but I would not know where to go.” Tommy exhaled and shook his head. “Maybe...could you find him? Tell me which way and how far. Maybe that way...”

What? He would live forever with his brother and his human, never to be with Noh-Varr.

Noh didn’t want to deal with the thought that Tommy might never return to the sea. It was impossible to think of the merman as severed from the deep blue forever, severed from all he cared for and Noh too.

Especially Noh. His heart still pounded and thundered for the boy, though he did not mention it, for Tommy had other things to occupy his head at the moment.

“I could try to find him, but I will not recognize the area and if he’s not in the water...” His fin cleaved the surface, parts of his back too. And he had an idea.

“You could...ride on my back. You know the land you brought your brother to, you could recognize it.”

Tommy sat upright, stunned still at the suggestion. Ride Noh-Varr? Well, he supposed it was an idea, however odd. Biting his lip, he glanced back where Nathaniel surely slept.

“Okay,” he said quickly, impulse urging him to obey instinct. “When the brightness returns. At night...I couldn’t recognize it from above. Will you return tomorrow? I will find a way to be here. Somehow.”

The mer-shark nodded, squeezing at Tommy’s body best he could, silently promising his presence at their agreed upon time. It would be difficult to waste yet another day with waiting, but at least he’d have the chance to fill his gullet for the journey. He would need some strength if he was to carry Tommy along the surface for a long way without any breaks.

“I will wait for you, here. Just do as you did today, splash the water, call my name, I will always come to you.”

Tommy believed him.

“I’ll see you then,” he promised, not yet willing to part. He had hair to stroke beneath the water, a body to admire and long for. There were memories to recall between the two of them, new ones to formulate. How, they lacked the resources, the imagination to conjure up anything.

For now, he told Noh-Varr of the things he learned, not telling the truncated version. He delved into details, relaying all he could recall. When he had no further stories to tell and he felt the pull of the cottage, he knew their time ended for the moment.

Tommy held his breath and dipped his head low, finding Noh-Varr’s mouth and pressing his against it.


	10. Chapter 10

Well, Tommy did indeed come to the shore.

Problem: Nathaniel.

The man had been more than...surprised that Tommy could speak. Really, the daft man had left him no choice but to articulate his need to be taken to the beach. He fabricated a tale, one he pieced together the night before, of a ship coming to take him home, that he knew it would arrive.

Now Nathaniel held him at the shore, a bundle in his arm that had all Tommy required. Damn, helpful, kind idiot.

“What do you mean? I’m not leaving you alone. You’re not fully recovered. I rather stay until I see you off well.”

Tommy cursed and splashed mindlessly at the waves with his foot where he sat on a rock. This was not an obstacle he had expected to be so stubborn.

The mer-shark had spent the day circling listlessly, his success at hunting only marginal. The worry for Tommy kept him slow, his movements unguarded and much of his prey escaped his jaws. He was distracted. And it drove him mad. He couldn’t stop thinking about Tommy, his heart ached to know the former merman prince’s safety. And even though no creature of the sea could touch him now, there were plentiful monsters in the lands above.

When the water splashed, Tommy’s scent drew him in. He didn’t know of Nathaniel’s presence and his fin crested the surface only meters from the shore.

Tommy, so deep in his own mind as if it were as deep as the sea, did not see the fin. Noh-Varr could have been before him and the prince might have overlooked him. Trapped in a human body, its insidious effects reaching fingers into his mind, upheaving his sense. Soon it would reach into his heart and clench it tight, ending his life.

“Look out!”

Nathaniel, however, saw the threat and dove down. He snatched Tommy around the waist, yanked him up. The prince thrashed and screamed, alarmed, and then desperate. He saw the fin. He knew Noh-Varr was nearing. Tommy splashed harder, both as a means to keep himself fixated to his spot and as to alert Noh-Varr of trouble.

“Let go of me!”

“Are you mad?” Nathaniel’s strength flooded Tommy and his attempts to break free. “Look! It’s a shark!”

Worse than a shark, Tommy thought, but found himself beating on Nathaniel’s back and shoulders. He couldn’t be taken back. Not now. He had to go to Noh-Varr.

Noh had picked up the second body in the shallow water by now, and he did not like it one bit. He did slow his approach, knew he would cause alarm in whoever joined Tommy in the sea. 

And then, Tommy’s legs disappeared from his sight, instead a mad splashing began and Noh knew it was not a good sign. If he exposed himself, it would only worsen the matter...but if he didn’t, he wouldn’t know who or what just stole his prince from their arranged meeting.

He really hated breaching, but with a deep lungful of breathable air and still out far enough so an impact wouldn’t hurt, he went for it, forcing his eyes wide open to see if Tommy was alright.

Tommy acted more befitting of bull shark than a prince with the way he struggled. By this time Nathaniel saw him gone mad; he had claimed the night before and this morning the prince had a marginal fever, whatever that meant to one like Tommy. It must have entailed madness or the inability for others to recognize what you were demanding because Nathaniel held him that much tighter, maneuvering them away.

Then it stopped. Nathaniel’s face, Tommy saw, fell out of its color, eyes wide. 

Tommy looked. 

“Noh-Varr,” he whispered, heart thudding in his chest, wanting to lunge forward at the mer-shark.

“That is no shark,” Nathaniel whispered. His expression slammed; he was a stranger to Tommy now, as was his voice. “They’re real...”

Tommy did not like the new Nathaniel. He grunted and shoved at his face. “Let me go! He’s a friend! If you hurt him I will bite your legs off!”

The smack jarred Nathaniel out of his gaping. “You’re delirious. No. This...that is a great white, but no mere shark! Can you not see? He will devour you if you give him the chance!”

Noh had to dive back down for air, but he’d gotten a good look at the situation. The person he assumed to have picked Tommy off of the beach was having the typically human reaction and, though incorrectly, was trying to protect Tommy. He could marginally respect that, though it was entirely unnecessary in this situation.

He thought frantically on how to appear less threatening, and resorted to something he’d never done before. This time, he only let his head and shoulders surface and wasted his precious air on words.

“Release him right now and I will not harm you!”

Tommy had to gape now. Not once had he heard Noh-Varr speak above water. Among the cacophony of their current predicament, it sounded sweeter than the sound of the sea’s waves.

To Nathaniel, it was rock grinding against rock. He held Tommy closer, away and above the water, flailing limbs and all.

“Stay back,” he ordered, after collecting himself. It spoke. It had an awful voice. Its eyes had no end. “You can’t get on shore. You’ll die, and I have the mind to spear you if you get too close! I don’t want to hurt you.”

Tommy stopped proving a burden over Nathaniel’s shoulder. He did not want to harm Noh-Varr? That had been the first proclamation against a mer-shark Tommy had heard yet.

“Please,” he tried, searching for that compassion within Nathaniel he had just witnessed. “I...he is a friend. He won’t hurt me. I promise. Please. I need to get home. He knows the way.”

“He is fooling you!”

The shark didn’t have the capacity to hear all of the exchange as he had to dip his head back down for air, but he came up as soon as possible. Only to hear the tail end of Nate’s accusation. He tried to keep his blood from boiling, but seeing Tommy in the grip of another did nothing to calm his rage. With determination, he took course towards the beach.

It wasn’t easy for a shark to return to the safety of deep waters once he heaved his body onto sand, but Noh-Varr managed. Not right in front of the man holding Tommy, but a good three paces away, far beyond his maws and tail’s reach. He turned himself so he could dip his head underwater every now and then, his tail, still bandaged and not fully recovered, flapping slightly in the sand. Another mouthful of air and he spoke again.

“Let him go. He is my friend, I would never harm him, the entire ocean would dry up before I would think of such a thing.”

Nathaniel confirmed the mer-shark spoke. Intelligent speech. Not a figment of his panicked mind. Alright, he could diffuse the situation. Clearly the young man in his arms was not well, but how he managed to speak to a mer-shark in the first place...

“Alright, alright, listen,” he said, tensing each time the mer-shark’s face appeared. “How do you know him? He’s very sick right now. If you try something suspicious, I’ll be forced to hurt you. Now tell me what this is about.”

The man certainly seemed dull-witted. Could he not see that it was difficult enough for the shark to speak in the disgustingly dry air? Could he not see how vulnerable a position he’d taken to prove his non-lethal intent?

It would seem words were the only thing to sway the human’s mind, so Noh would supply him with them.

“He is my friend, I brought him to shore to stop him from dying,” a dive down, deep breath, and he continued, “but he does not live here. His brother lives across that way,” a gesture out to sea, somewhere in the vicinity of a bunch of islands, “and I will take him there. Now unhand him or,” another gulp of water, “I will not be so patient.”

Nathaniel listened, and believed. Flummoxed by his gut’s assurance, the captain carefully lowered Tommy, steadying him on unsteady legs. Had this creature truly saved a human, a meal?

“Why,” he asked, less a question though. Gently he lowered onto his haunches, Tommy in his arms and wilting as more time progressed.

“Noh-Varr,” Tommy whispered. His fatigue caught up quick, and suddenly he couldn’t warm himself up though he wore two layers Nathaniel had proffered. Reaching out with one leg, he tried to coax the mer-shark closer, needing to feel him. “I don’t feel well...”

Noh-Varr chose to respond to Tommy before the man and pushed himself closer using his arms so Tommy’s foot could rest on his back. 

“Because I care for him. Deeply. It is not your place to question me,” mouthful of water, “now let go.”

Tommy’s foot on his back was not enough contact, so he ran his hand over a thin shin, fingers utterly careful and devoted as he gave his friend the merest twitch of a soft smile until he could bump the top of his head against the sole of Tommy’s new extremity.

Tommy smiled, feet gently patting and probing Noh-Varr’s body. Unlike his tail, the area beneath his feet tickled always, sensations intensified. He wiggled his toes against old scars and wished he had the strength to hug him.

Meanwhile Nathaniel observed the display, not yet willing to release Tommy.

“How do you intend to take him to the islands?”

“I will ride him,” Tommy supplied.

Nathaniel stared, expression flabbergasted. The man was far sicker, not just in body, than he calculated.

“This is what we’ll do,” he said. “I have a boat nearby. Small, enough for two people. You guide us to the islands. The last few yards you can take him, if I believe by then you truly mean him no harm. You cannot expect to drag him all the way there on your back. You’ll kill him in that cold water.”

He had half a mind to just tear the man’s legs and face off and just be done with this senseless negotiation. Tommy was his to care for, not this stranger’s. What manner of right did he have to claim such a duty?

“I am not a damn dolphin!” he growled, nipping down for another breath. This conversation was growing tedious indeed.

“Release him at least and I will consider it.”

Nathaniel’s heart bucked higher up, into the back of his throat. How this frail man in his arms could rap his toes against the same creature Nathaniel had the sense to brandish a weapon against, he did not know.

Slowly, carefully, he shared a piece of his trust by removing his hands, maintaining a very close proximity. Tommy deflated without his aid, collapsing over his friend, instantly nuzzling up to him.

“I’m cold,” he muttered, curling up against Noh-Varr, his legs tangling with the fin.

Noh-Varr only had eyes for Tommy, wrapping him in one arm and squeezing him closer, smiling brilliantly at him from beneath the gentle waves that lapped at the rest of him.

Tommy was all sorts of wrong as a human. Too dry, too warm, too frail. Noh had no source of heat to offer the young man, his body gave off none save for his chest to which he drew Tommy.

“You should eat a seal, you would feel much better with your stomach filled.”

Tommy chuckled, despite the lack of vigor. “A seal,” he said around his chuckling. “You would like that, wouldn’t you.”

Cautiously, Nathaniel approached, crouching to study Noh-Varr, but not daring to touch. “He has not eaten much in the last two days. He won’t eat the fish I caught. He needs something in his stomach. Maybe you can...convince him. He has fever.”

Grunting at the words, Tommy nestled closer, shutting his eyes. He could stand to sleep in the cold water so long as Noh-Varr held him. “Don’t want to eat,” he muttered. “Want to sleep...want to go home. I want Noh-Varr.”

Noh lifted his head to give Tommy a brief, wet nuzzle, before taking in what had been said.

“If you don’t eat and rest, you won’t be healthy enough for whatever we have to do to get you home,” he removed his head and stroked Tommy’s hair with one hand, despairing in how different it felt dry.

“I will be here. I am always here with you,” his grip tightened to convey the depth of his promise, “but I need you to be strong. And healthy. You know I would gladly die for you, but I would prefer not to meet such a pathetic end as suffocating. I am here Tommy, you need only call for me.”

Tommy listened to the melody of Noh-Varr’s voice, saw the tenderness upon opening his heavy eyelids and felt the affection in the smallest of strokes against his sensitized skin.

“Okay,” he whispered.

“Come,” Nathaniel said, reaching out. “Let me get him food, new clothes, and we’ll return.”

“Fish. Noh-Varr...bring him fish too.” Tommy accepted Nathaniel’s assistance, but then released him to curl up against Noh-Varr’s either side. “I’ll stay. Please. Little longer. Bring the boat. I can change there...”

With a sigh heavier than intended, Nathaniel nodded and stood. “Alright. I’ll be back soon.” Mindful of taking glances over his shoulder, he returned to his cottage.

The moment Tommy could not hear his footsteps, he shut his eyes again and grumbled, “I do not like my genitals. Bothering me.” He wiggled his hips and wrapped his legs around a fin again.

Noh-Varr edged them both forward to water, though he was careful not to submerge the boy in it too deeply. Just enough for him to turn comfortable and wrap another arm around Tommy who twisted around his body like an octopus.

Though the complaint had his eyes bulge a little. He’d never given human genitalia any thought and now his curiosity was peaked. He stuffed down any matter of ill-timed questions and enjoyed the close proximity.

“Unfortunately, I can’t do anything about that...I think. We’re quite incompatible right now,” he felt his claspers twitch, willing to argue his point.

“We could go. Right now. He will never catch up to me.”

Tommy chuckled again, unable to thwart off the image of Noh-Varr mounting him. “Can you imagine?” he said, seeking the other’s mouth underwater for a short kiss. With his body plagued with illness, he couldn’t handle his breath as well as before. 

“I don’t care,” he said, finding Noh-Varr’s gaze, playing with his hair. “I just...I, ah,” what was he about to confess? When did it fall so cold.

Shivering, Tommy hugged Noh-Varr closer to himself, hoping he didn’t aggravate the predator’s awkward positioning. Nevermind his lack of lucidity. He digested Noh’s latest words.

“But I thought I-I had to eat,” he said, “and I’m s-so cold. I sh-should at least get more clothes?”

When had he gone to stuttering and racked with silly concerns? He should just allow Noh-Varr to sweep him onto his back and take him, consequences aside.  
Noh-Varr did imagine, but it wasn’t an image he found all the thrilling, no matter how much he would have loved another mating with Tommy. Now wasn’t the time for that though, not when the subject of his questionable affection was riddled with illness and fragility. The shivers did nothing to catalyze Noh-Varr’s initiative and he considered his own words. No, they really should wait for the man to return.

“You’re right. You should get back onto land, Tommy,” he didn’t move to dislodge the boy, but he felt his own concern mount with every passing second, “the water’s...too cold for you right now.”

Tommy grunted as he embraced Noh-Varr harder. Nothing could peel him off so easily, least any words.

Luck favored them that day, for Nathaniel returned quickly, managing a brisk pace with bundles in his arms, a rope in one hand. Squinting, Tommy spotted a little boat tilting this way and that as it paddled over.

“Here,” Nathaniel said. He dumped the objects in the boat, then hauled a bucket over and splashed it beside Noh-Varr, not too close. “Eat it all if you need. Let me take your...friend, and dry him off, give him some food. We’ll be right in the boat. Okay?”

With the sickly gleam to Tommy’s skin, Noh probably wouldn’t have argued if the man told him he was taking Tommy inside of his house to get him warmed up by a fire, but the boat was the far more pleasant option. He could at least be close to his prince.

Only after Tommy was gently peeled from him did he reach for the bucket, swallowing the first three fish whole. He really needed to hunt sometime soon, he was beginning to lose muscle tone and that was not a good thing for an apex predator.

He did wonder what the rope was for. Surely, the man didn’t think Noh would pull his boat through the waters like some sort of dolphin, right?

Once he finished the fish, he swam lazy circles around the boat, making brief appearances to check on Tommy. He looked better, wrapped up in blankets and eating, even if he did not look pleased by the flavours.

“Do you have tang? He likes tang.”

Nathaniel did, and he offered a piece to Tommy, who nibbled on it. His bright eyes, murkier with fatigue, never ceased scanning the water where Noh-Varr swam, smiles touching his lips occasionally when his friend emerged.

Huddling deeper into his clothes and blankets, he leaned closer to the lip of the boat, munching and extending one hand to caress Noh-Varr when he passed under them.  
Nathaniel watched him, copious notes jotted down in his mind.

“He really is your friend.”

Tommy mindlessly, honestly, answered, “I love him.”

He didn’t see Nathaniel’s eyes narrow, then soften, nor did he hear himself confess the words.

“Come along,” he said. “I’ll paddle. You just rest and eat up. Hey!” He patted the water’s surface to warrant the mer-shark’s attention. “We’re ready when you are.”

The shark didn’t surface to confirm he’d heard, but he did grab the trailing rope from the boat to pull it towards the right direction, though he would certainly let Nate do the paddling and propel the vessel. 

He’d scouted far and wide during the day whilst he was hunting and he had a pretty good sense of where Tommy’s brother may live. He’d still need guidance from Tommy once they neared the island, but for the crossing of the deep waters between the lands, Noh managed on his own.

*  
Dawn was rising in brilliant shades of orange and red, the sun cresting the horizon and the mer-shark was still swimming, guiding the boat which carried his precious prince. He didn’t know how long he’d been searching now, but the islands he aimed for were in sight.

Allowing himself a respite, he surfaced at the boat’s side, finding it easier than before to hold his breath as he spoke to waste less of it.

“We’re almost there.”

Nathaniel nodded, exhaling and welcoming the break. He sat back, wiping his brow. Tucked into the boat, Tommy slept, a ball with a face attached to the blankets.

“I think his fever will break tonight. He’s sweating profusely,” he said, grabbing a wet cloth and managing it on the prince’s head. As he settled back down, he studied the mer-shark, waiting for him to resurface before speaking.

“I owe you apologies. For a captain who strives to lose the air of ignorance my kind have, I certainly fell into it.” He glanced at the sleeping body. “It’s not my place to judge his love for you, even if it still...unsettles me. Must be because it’s different, but not bad. Another time I hope I can hear his story, how he met you.”

Noh indulged in the sight of a relatively peaceful Tommy, happy to see him look better than the previous night. He would have loved to curl around him, to know how warm his skin felt against his own, to feel the strength of his heartbeat and life. Right now, like this though, there was little he could save for reaching over and gently touching his leg.

Nate’s words had him freeze though.

“His...love for me?” 

Nathaniel nodded as he fished through his bag, picking out rations to chew on.

“Yes,” he said casually. “I was watching him and told him you truly were his companion. He told me he loved you, and I oddly enough believe him. Then again, there are stranger things in this world than love. If he loves you, I will not scorn that.”

At that time, Tommy shifted, as if knowing the conversation revolved around him. He yawned and shivered, cracking an eye open, smiling at the feel of a familiar hand upon his leg. He hummed and settled closer to the touch, his foot and toes pressing into Noh-Varr’s palm.

Those were some rather unsettling news to digest, though Noh took it in his stride, storing away the implications of a previously to him unknown emotion away for later. Tommy’s well-being and return to the sea had top priority and if the thought of Tommy loving him brought a smile to his face, no one would be any wiser. 

Tommy’s expression relaxed Noh-Varr’s and his voice only brought forth a hushed whisper.

“He is the most important in all the world to me.”

Tommy heard that, but his body, this vile, ailing body kept him down, seized his throat. Yet the words percolated in his mind and fermented in his heart. He managed to press once more into Noh-Varr’s grip before drifting off. Later he could dissect the meaning.

“We best be going then,” Nathaniel said, analyzing the way Noh-Varr touched the young man. “Once we dock, I’ll need your help. He doesn’t seem to trust me as much.”

He allowed the mer-shark a moment more to touch his friend (love?) before they were off again. It regretted him to do so, but carefully he shook Tommy awake, asking if he recalled the area. He muttered something about claspers and seals, and fell back into his restless sleep.

“He’s getting worse,” Nathaniel called when Noh-Varr’s head emerge. “Just lead us there. Maybe I can scan the area and find his brother while you watch the boat.”

Concern had him swimming faster than his tired body could deal with, but for Tommy, Noh was capable of anything.

The islands drew closer rapidly as the mer-shark began pulling the boat instead of just guiding it, Nate’s paddles hanging uselessly in the water, adrift in the waves. 

He didn’t know which island was the right one, didn’t have time to circle and search and smell his way through the beaches.

Noh-Varr chose one at random, the biggest one that might look like it housed some civilization.

“Here. Start here. And hurry.”

Nathaniel leapt off the boat before Noh-Varr had hauled it up along the beach. He took off in a jog, navigating his way toward the closest signs of civilization. Even if Tommy’s twin was not nearby, he had to be taken in for medical attention for the night.

Meanwhile, as the boat rocked to a stillness, only moving with the sea’s gentle prompting, Tommy pushed up onto his hands.

“Noh-Varr?” he called, then relaxed at seeing the dorsal fin nearby. He hung his arms over the edge, fingers touching the water. “Noh-Varr. I can’t see well.” He gathered his thoughts, which required a moment. “Do you...do you think,” he was breathing harder for breaths, “the witch did this to me?”

The shark did as he usually did when agitated, he circled, dorsal fin cutting tight little round lines into the surface. Upon hearing Tommy’s voice, he came up immediately, grasping Tommy’s hand and wishing he could heal him with a touch.

“I don’t know, Tommy. Don’t think about it now. Relax, or try to...close your eyes,” he waited until his prince obeyed, before he continued speaking, “just think of...I don’t know, dolphins. Or that whale you liked, remember how you made me ride it? Bloody awful, worst decision of my life...but you know what the best one is?” he kissed the pale hand in his, “a colourful little clownfish prince, wandering into my territory to catch a glimpse of me. And I didn’t eat him for it.”

Tommy leaned his cheek onto his arm, humming a pleasant thought. Each memory fabricated behind his eyelids, most vibrant the one where he followed an urge to spy on a creature beyond his knowledge. 

“Best choice of my life,” he said, opening his eyes to meet the best choice of his life. His fingers stroked over Noh-Varr’s, along his wrist, the webbing. He knew the illness had burrowed in deeply when he confessed, “I’m afraid. Do you know of what? Not being with you. I don’t want to die in this rotting body, Noh-Varr. Not like this. I won’t. I won’t let her take me this way, when I found something good in my life. Something...stubborn, menacing, kind, beautiful...”

Tommy’s flattery was hitting all the right places and he let himself revel in the kind words. Well, mostly kind.

Tommy’s fear was evident in his voice and Noh could do nothing but kiss Tommy’s hand, his arm, rub his head on any part he could reach so he might be of some comfort to the prince.

“You won’t....Tommy I won’t let you go. You’re going to live and I’m going to live with you...even..even if we have to adapt to this. I’ve never had anyone in my life, and I’ve never mourned it, but I would not...could not bear to lose you. I...you’re too important. You’ve given me something I could never replace.”

Tommy’s lip twitched.

“I am,” a deep, tired breath, “flattered. To have moved a mer-shark so...my grandfather has his conquest,” another breath, “all wrong.”

For a moment, one might have thought he perished then, gone still and colder. A light squeeze confirmed he had no plans to wilt away in this body just yet.

“I want to live with you, Noh-Varr,” he said softly without preamble. “Explore...and live together. A place for us. No one else.”

“We will. You and me, little fishprince,” Noh bumped Tommy’s nose, giving him a toothy grin that he supposed could eventually learn how to be charming rather than nightmare-ish.

“I promise. One way or another, I belong to you. With you.”

Tommy smiled, liking that compromise.

Before he could verbalize his affection, he heard a commotion. Too tired to lift his head, he grunted and clung to Noh-Varr’s hand harder.

“Tommy! Thank the sea, you’re alright!”

Tommy peered up in time to see his twin splashing like a mad fish, flinging himself onto the sickly prince, forgetting the mer-shark lurking nearby.

“You’re burning up,” Billy exclaimed, and then the world tilted as strong arms belonging to a blonde head scooped him up. “Take him to the cottage, please. Go.”

Tommy lost most of the images and words as his world turned one direction, and he felt the lack of warmth from Noh-Varr’s hand. But what was he to say? Sleep overcame him again, and Noh-Varr grew smaller in the distance.

Yet Billy remained with Nathaniel, breathing hard and searching for the mer-shark he knew to be there.

“Noh-Varr,” he said, lowering to his hands and knees, letting the waves brush over him. “Thank you. What happened? Why is he...what stupid thing did he do? Please, tell me.”

Watching Tommy be carried off was one of the hardest sights Noh-Varr ever had to bear and yet he knew it was for the best.

Seeing Billy was strange, he looked so much like Tommy, but now, perfectly at ease being human. He couldn’t fathom how anyone could choose to live among these creatures of their own free will?

“He...it is a long story, but I do not have the breath for it, so I must make it short. We came to the reef, your grandfather was displeased with him and wanted to imprison him...Tommy went to see that damn witch. I told him not to.”

He shook with rage for a moment, “We escaped, but the witch claimed her price.”

Billy absorbed the information, cringing and shaking his head with each new word.

“Oh, Noh-Varr.” Without fear, he reached out and touched a broad shoulder. “You saved him. Just as he saved me during my transformation. His illness though, I never got ill like that.” He contemplated, sinking deeper into the water, ignoring Nathaniel listening behind.

“Noh-Varr,” he said suddenly. “Humans can be as beautiful as they are ugly. I don’t...I do miss the sea, but Tommy will be safe with the man I live with. But if he worsens,” he hardened his face, “I hate to demand this of you. I can’t risk losing my twin though. I need you to go back down. You need to find the witch, confirm if this is her spell. If we wait too long, he might die in this body. Can you do that?”

Noh-Varr’s expression turned grim, and although he knew how much Tommy didn’t want him to make the dangerous journey, he would do so. Now he had more cause than ever, with Tommy’s life in the balance. It wasn’t even a contest.

“I will. And I will tear the flesh from her bones if she refuses to fix this.” He looked towards the cottage, fierce gaze breaking into heart-wrenching worry, “You take care of him. Even...even if he can never be with me again, I need him to be okay. I need him to live.”

Billy lowered his hand, standing once more on legs he called his own now.

“He needs you to live too,” he sighed. “I know it too well, that idiot. Go, we’ll tend to him. Come back in one piece. Nathaniel will wait for you,” he added, not bothering to request the captain’s assistance. He was still a prince and acted so under the proper duress.


	11. Chapter 11

Noh-Varr had wasted no time, only stopping to feed on a surprised shoal of fish once. The descent to the witch’s cave was dark and eerie, empty of life as if all creatures knew to avoid this place. He couldn’t imagine what Tommy and Billy, two spoiled princes from a protected reef kingdom would feel coming to a place like this.

The cave looked as inviting as the jaws of an orca, but the mer-shark did not hesitate, angling his body careful of the dead things littering the rock. 

“Witch!” he bellowed, making no play at courtesy, “show yourself!”

The witch did not appear for any mere, curious soul. The corpses and angled bones serving as barriers and shelving spoke of that, and perhaps of those who did not hold up their end of whatever unfortunate bargain befell the gullible.

For Noh-Varr, her voice greeted him as a mixture of humming and chuckling. The sound undulated through the cavern, a witchcraft of its own.

A draft of cold water entered her chambers, surrounding the intruder, but she spoke to him.

“I’ve not had the pleasure of a great white in my humble home. Come in deeper.”

Noh-Varr thanked his body’s layers of protective fat that kept him from being affected by the cold, though the atmosphere only increased and triggered his need for flight.

But there would be none of that until he resolved this issue for Tommy’s sake. With a picture of his sickly prince firmly in mind, he swam on, body tight and coiled and ready to fight if need be.

“I’m here to find out what you did to Tommy. And you would do well not to lie, I am hungry.”

The witch’s voice brightened, amusement tickling each laugh.

“You could eat me, but upon the first tear you will find out too late the poison flowing through your body,” she said. In the back, high up, her eyes, though dark, illuminated themselves. “And your body has enough stories for now, isn’t that right? Don’t answer. I already know, just as I know why you are here. You think I am killing the princeling and you wish to save him.”

She remained in her spot, eyes trailing over Noh-Varr, her body caressed by shadows.

“He asked for my help. I am helping him, even now.”

Noh-Varr didn’t like this creature, not one part of him was comfortable in her presence. He hovered in place, tail only swishing now and then as per habit.

“I fail to see how condemning him to a life on land is of any help! He is not his brother, he doesn’t want to have legs and live among those beasts!”

At the tone, the witch tore free from the wall, her face scant millimeters from the mer-shark’s, haunted and mad of a creature lost to witchcraft and isolation.

“Don’t you dare tell me what is best or not for my sons,” she said, so softly one might think she had not spoken the words herself. Her body, red and dark in her rage, vibrated, her tails like that of legendary serpents.

Sons? Noh-Varr couldn’t fathom how a creature like this could fall to the delusion of being the mother of twin princes, of a kingdom she was most likely not accepted in. Or at least, as much as he was.

But he couldn’t show weakness and question that part now. Tommy’s life depended on him and he let anger roll over his features. Snarling and snapping, he met her gaze.

“Then why aren’t you helping him? He could be dying and here you sit in your little cave, living out your mad delusions. You have no idea what pleasure it would give me to kill you for having taken him from me.”

The insult seemed to mold over the witch’s rage. She smiled, a mirthless gesture, and circled Noh-Varr, her extremities providing an endless loop around the mer-shark, ensnaring him.

“I am,” she insisted. “I know what he wants. All is going to plan.” Her hands stroked up Noh-Varr’s body, admiring the harsh texture beneath her palms. “I can proceed, aid you in your task, Noh-Varr.”

She spun forward, in his face again, eyes alight.

“You love my fairer son, don’t you?”

There were few things Noh-Varr was terrified of. Orcas, for one. Extended periods above surface, two. And three, being ensnared. Nets, giant octopi and serpents. Every part of him was screaming to bite, shake his maws until the witch bled her poison into him and then lumber away to die in peace. But Tommy held fast to his mind, controlled his every sense.

Did he love him? Did he even know how to love? Noh-Varr had no time to define his thoughts, but the pounding of heart, the swell of warmth as he thought about the young man confirmed everything the witch already knew.

“I do. I would die for him. And if that is your price, witch, I will pay it.”

Her face relaxed, expressionless. She circled him again, continuing her dance, seeing if he cavorted to her tune.

“As much pleasure as it might give me to curb your tongue, I will not kill you,” she said, hands upon him, precariously close to his gills. “You will sacrifice for him, and it will suffice my trade. What, you sacrifice, you will learn as you return to where my son is.”

Her nails dragged hard, closer to the slits. “Do we have a deal?”

His gills flared as his breath quickened, this touch was anything but pleasurable and he knew it was a bad idea to take her deal. But what choice would he have? To save Tommy, he would do anything. Even if it meant taking whatever cruel, warped sacrifice the witch demanded of him. He met her gaze once more, deep black steeled with resolution.

“We do. And you will cure him of all his ills.”

Her hiss of delight cut cut the boulders and ships buried deep in the sea’s womb. She scratched along his shoulders, her tails fondling his limbs.

“A deal then,” she said, “but it is you who will have him healed.”

With the enigma burrowing into Noh-Varr, a force beyond his sight blew into him, knocking him out of the cavern and spitting him out high, in the direction of the surface where Tommy lied ailing. 

*  
It wasn’t far now, and yet he might as well still have to cross the entire ocean. Noh-Varr had never felt so weak, so empty, not even when he was a starving pup, terrified of everything around him wanting to feast on his flesh. The witch’s magic burned him, the pain and exhaustion crippled his speed. Light was dancing along the surface, it must have been morning, or evening, he couldn’t tell anymore. Sand swirled beyond his fin, or at least, where he thought his fin ought to be because it simply always had been there. His lungs burned but he could not breathe. The waves were stronger than him and they carried him towards the shore. He felt the last remains of his strength leave his limbs as sand dragged along his stomach.

Nathaniel had been returning for his watch, bundle with provisions in hand. It had been two days, no sign of the mer-shark nor hint of a recovering Tommy. If anything, he seemed within death’s palm now, soon to be carted off.

The stories he had been told, he believed with the validation of his right hand man, Theodore, who he had yet to see since the months they last spoke. 

Nathaniel shook his head, deciding he could untangle the tales once situated on the shore.

Only he would not, for there, drying up on the beach, nudged by the waves, another.

“Oh, not again,” he whispered, dashing forward to aid the...merman turned human? A triplet, maybe? “Hey, are you alright?”

He lowered down, turning the body, which was far bigger than his own and riddled with scars. A familiar, too familiar face and torso met his concern, and he hissed.

“Noh-Varr,” he said, recalling the foreign name. “Oh, Gods help me.”

*

Dragging the mer-shark proved to be a foolish move. Noh-Varr was all muscle, thrice the weight when unconscious. He hated abandoning the man, but he recruited Theodore’s aid to haul their new visitor. A blanket wrapped around the now turned human, and Noh-Varr looked more presentable to be hauled on a small cart.

Billy scurried forward hearing the creaks of the protesting cart. He set up a bed on the ground beside Tommy, frantic as he examined the limbs peeking out from the blanket.

“Oh, this is not what I thought would happen...”

Tommy, a guest to the bedlam, fluttered opened his eyes. Bleary as he was, he sensed familiarity and tilted his head.

“Tommy!”

Hands he recognized as Billy flew over his skin.

“He’s opening his eyes! Oh, good, good. Tommy, can you hear me, you daft moron?”

Tommy grunted, wondering why his twin had the audacity to scream in his face. He disregarded that as his vision smoothed out around the edges. White hair. A large body. Scars.

“Noh,” his cracked voice tried to say. A fumbling hand freed itself, clutching Noh’s instantly as the mer-shark was lowered to his side. No, not a mer-shark. A choked sound lost itself in Tommy’s voice.

“Tommy,” Billy was saying, stroking his cheek, his hair. “It’s good to see you responding at last. Relax, relax. He’s okay. They...found him. Don’t be sad. You,” his twin trailed off, and Tommy didn’t know the shock crossing his face.

Theodore, Teddy to Billy, and Nathaniel noted it though. The longer Tommy held Noh-Varr’s hand, the deeper the color returning to his cheeks, the calmer his breathing entered, the sharper lucidity peaked in his eyes.

“What is this?” Nathaniel asked.

“I don’t know,” Billy said, eyes jumping between the two prone figures. “Come, come. Help me.”

As Tommy began to whine, unable to formulate words that was not the mer-shark’s name, the others took hold of his body and eased him down beside the man. Before he touched the make-shift bed, Tommy’s arms sprang around Noh-Varr, seizing him, touching him in ways he could not as a human and the other as son of the sea.

“Noh-Varr,” he cried into a broad chest, feeling the same heartbeat quieting him down. “Noh-Varr, Noh-Varr...”

It was all he could say.

There was a transition, a shift around him. Two or maybe even more. From being dragged over something distinctly uncomfortable, then up, down, and then he was moving in an entirely weird and new way, like riding something, or maybe being stuck in the open mouth of something much larger.

He didn’t really care to find out what was going on or who was moving him. Noh-Varr only stirred on his own once the magic the witch laid upon him surged from his body, lifted the veil from his eyes and he could bear to open them once more.

A sweet melody, a familiar voice, one that turned his worst nightmares to gentle dreams and hopeful arrays, one that carried with it the memory of a shining tail, a flashy smirk and a confidence so boisterous it was dazzling to behold.

Noh-Varr opened his eyes, no longer the colour of midnight, but of the sun-kissed azure of the ocean’s shallow arms herself.

“Tommy?” he did not question how or where or why, only saw his...beloved, aglow with health and able to embrace him as he should, “Tommy!” 

Strong arms shot around the boy, pressed him all the harder to the former shark as if he could not bear another moment apart.

Only then did Noh seem to realize he was not under water and breathing. He could see his reflection in Tommy’s eyes, could see the change of his own, the lack of claws on his fingers and he already knew if he looked down, he’d no longer catch sight of a tail. This was the witch’s price.

“Tommy,” another repetition of his mantra, taking Tommy’s face between his hands,”You’re feeling better?”

Tommy choked on another something--a relief, a confession, a declaration. Noh-Varr, though transformed, was unharmed and vibrating with life, a new one. Stroking over softer skin, Tommy nodded to alleviate his predator’s concerns.

“Fine, fine,” he said. Weary, yes, dizzy, slightly. It all paled at seeing Noh-Varr here, holding him, alive. Alive. “Fool, what did you do.”

He glanced down, hands scrambling, touching everything. There was pliable skin now, muscle bulging beneath a still massive body, scars still littering legs, which Tommy could not cease fondling. His fingers raced over thick thighs, traced the shape of new genitilia, and felt bony protrusions called knees.

“By the sea, look at you,” he couldn’t help but laugh. “You’re...beautiful.”

It was true. Those eyes might have been brighter, but they brimmed with Noh-Varr and now, even in this form, Tommy looked at him as if he were the brightest, largest gem the sea could offer.

Exhaustion and need for sleep were things far from Noh’s mind as he relished every second of Tommy’s touch against his much more sensitive, new skin. He couldn’t find so much of Tommy’s scent, but the way he could hold him close again more than made up for that minor deficiency. His legs tangled with the former prince’s, he noted he was still much larger than the boy and that satisfied him a little too well.

He succeeded. Tommy looked so much better, no longer on death’s doorstep, and so thrilled to see him.

“I’m deficiently human,” he augmented, giving a split second of mourning for his tail. He liked his life, solitude and reputation included, but he’d probably never return to his life beneath the waves.

“You’re safe now. I’m here. Not leaving your side ever again.”

Tommy cupped Noh-Varr’s face, holding their gaze before nodding, if a bit frantically. No one would object to it or insult him for it given his recent history. 

“Because of you,” Tommy said, as if sharing a confession so secret not even the sea could be trusted with it.

Admitting his affection or the sanctity of Noh-Varr’s words turned his sensitized stomach into a typhoon. Tommy abandoned all thoughts on verbalizing what his stomach and chest wanted him to, instead tucking into familiar arms, breathing familiar scents.

His hands roamed over Noh-Varr’s chest, arms, and sides.

“Sleep with me,” he said. Words could be exchanged later, accusations thrown, misery acknowledged. They were fatigued, but alive. 

Tommy could endure that now that he had Noh-Varr’s neck to bury his face into.

“Gladly,” he chuckled, running a hand down Tommy’s spine, admiring his admittedly still beautiful form. Nothing could diminish the boy in his eyes and although they would probably lose their tempers with each other’s recklessness later on, rest was paramount now. It was over. He made it back and could be beside Tommy once more. No matter how wicked the witch’s plan truly was, he could not be anything but grateful to her for allowing this.

Even if she’d take his life, he would remember the bliss he felt right here, with Tommy as a blanket, fingers interlaced where they did not scrabble madly for each other.

*

Tommy supposed the one good thing from returning on the edge of death was the royal treatment they earned the following day. For Noh-Varr, at the least.

“I do not need to rest!” He smacked aside Nathaniel’s hand and bristled at his twin for the look shot his way.

“You’re such a pup!” Billy slapped down the plate harder than necessary housing Tommy’s meal. “Look at your friend. He does as he’s told. He eats all he’s given, rests. All you do is complain. I know you are restless, but you need to recover. Human bodies, as powerful as they are, are easily as delicate.”

“I want to get out of this bed!”

“Oh, let the sun dry you up!” Billy stomped up and stormed out with a crude gesture of his hands.

Tommy groaned and deflated against his propped up pillows, glancing at Noh-Varr who must have been working on his fourth meal. Not that the prince minded sharing a bed with the predator, but hours upon hours in one location equated to having his tail torn off by an orca.

Noh-Varr was content to enjoy the luxuries he’d never known. To laze around, knowing nothing could swim up behind you in the vast ocean, to be served food he didn’t have to lift a finger for? This was magnificent. He could eat and sleep and curl up around Tommy and nobody had any say on the matter.

Except the fidgeting little busybody beside him. He felt eyes on him and looked over, another fish (it was fried. Fried! Over fire!) disappearing between his pointy teeth. The witch had an odd sense of features she allowed him to keep, such as his scars, which looked severe on a human body. And the teeth. Not rows and rows of them, and not entirely as efficient as before. More like human teeth, with serrated little edges.

“You know, I quite enjoy this,” he offered.

“Really? I hadn’t noticed.” Tommy rolled his eyes and scrubbed his face. “Damn all this pampering. I’ve had enough of that back at the reef.”

He tore a tang off the plate and picked at it, nibbling on remnants he caught between his fingers. Unlike Noh-Varr, he ate to sustain his body, which seemed to require far more nutrients and attention. Not to mention warmth, particularly when pressed up against the former-shark.

Tommy lowered his eyes, sneaking glanced at Noh-Varr’s legs where they made bumps under the blanket. Already Noh-Varr had a better handling of his legs than Tommy had. He couldn’t walk on them, as they hadn’t been allowed to leave the bed without assistance, but within a few minutes Tommy embarrassingly acknowledged Noh-Varr would master their orchestra sooner than he could.

He munched harder on the fruit and rolled onto his side once removing the tray down to the ground.

“Noh-Varr,” he said, watching his friend eat. “I know I said I hated my body before...but have you felt strange things with it? Not...pain. Tickling deep down, not like this,” he ghosted his fingertips over Noh’s exposed chest, “but rather deep, deep inside. In your stomach. I sometimes feel like. Like a fire, without pain. I don’t know what it is. Have you felt it?”

The former shark continued his meal, but his eyes lingered on Tommy as he contemplated his words and what could be happening in his friend’s body. 

If it wasn’t pain or hunger, he wasn’t sure. Human bodies were as strange and new to him as to Tommy, maybe that feeling was a different kind of illness? Or maybe it was a sign of health?

Or maybe...  
Oh.  
This might turn into the best use of their lazing recovery time yet.

“Do you feel it anywhere...else?” Noh-Varr knew genitalia worked very differently for humans, but maybe arousal was more poignant with the flabs of skin and flesh they both now carried between their legs.

Tommy finished his tang as he went into himself for analysis. 

“Mm. No. Well,” he wrinkled his nose, “at first, yes. It usually starts deep, here.” He rubbed his hand at the lowest junction of his navel. “Then it makes me warm everywhere, but the sensation tends to start there. Like a twitch. I can’t tell for sure. Most of the time it happened was when we were sleeping last night. I’d wake up feeling funny, shift positions against you, and go back to sleep.”

He shrugged and lingered his gaze on Noh-Varr’s chest. Strange. If he didn’t know better, he thought he was feeling it now.

“How did you shift against me? Show me,” Noh was all ears and eyes now, keeping his inner glee, for he was certain it had something to do with Tommy’s latent attraction to him even as a human, to himself as he put the tray aside and flipped the blanket back. Wearing clothes was very strange. He’d never worn anything before, ‘naked’ as he was born every day of his life.

“Here, let me help. Do you feel it right now?”

“A little,” Tommy admitted with some coaxing. Another time he would dissect how Noh-Varr’s eyes could obtain his secrets with little resistance. 

For now he settled onto his side, pressing his body against the other. “Like this,” he said, “and then. I woke up. Our legs were together. Maybe the mating for...life speech was not untrue?”

Surely an illness didn’t come and go as it did now. Tommy wiggled his hips, then stilled when his leg brushed up against a sensitive area at the apex of Noh-Varr’s legs.

“Sorry,” he said. “It’s...much more sensitive than what we’re use to, isn’t it?”

Noh had to downright gasp at the sensation, never having felt its likeness before. Not even with both of his claspers deep inside of Tommy.

No part of his body had ever given him such a finely tuned keening for something he did not know.

“Tommy...” his breath hitched and he had to return the sensation, pressing one of his thighs forward against Tommy’s crotch, to show him how that felt.

Sparks shot through every extremity, and as a human he had more than enough to overwhelm him. Tommy hissed, the heat intensified. The same heat, more powerful. What had once been a tendril of smoke creeping through him was becoming a conflagration.

“Oh,” he breathed, understanding. “I didn’t...human bodies are different.”

It was not the most intelligent response, but who needed words when he could draw shapes on Noh-Varr’s neck, drawing him closer.

There could be a few words to share.

“I want you.”

Not only did the fire grow, but it consumed all it touched. Noh-Varr felt it more like an ache, a call for a pleasure ancient in any species, though few actually could savour it as something more than a function to create offspring.

He propped himself half over Tommy, gazing down at him with infinite affection.

“You already have me.”

Tommy did, and he claimed what belonged to him in a kiss that stole the newly earned air in their lungs. Kissing came smoother this time, their angles deeper now that rows and rows of teeth did not rattle its progress. Hours could surge past and he wouldn’t know.

Heat stretched through him, spawned at their joined mouths, and suddenly they couldn’t suck enough of each other. Territory, new and somehow explored, lured Tommy’s hands for a conquest. He scraped up Noh-Varr’s back, cupped globes he was beginning to appreciate more than a fin.

Now they had more limbs to tangle themselves deeper with. Tommy kicked off his pants with some assistance and reciprocated the aid to Noh-Varr. Bare legs and chests molded against one another, thighs brushing, toes meeting others. How human bodies could be resilient and so conscious of the softest kiss of the breeze, it would remain an enigma.

Without water muffling their voices, Tommy’s sounds came sweeter than the honey and milk Billy forced him to drink. Little cries escaped him when Noh-Varr found new areas to prospect.

All the while, something between his legs went harder, pressing up against Noh-Varr’s thigh. Oh. Right.

Tommy snuck his hand down, finding the same, thicker hardness. It felt odd in his hand, heavy almost, and far bigger. How were they to copulate with something so impressive? Could they?

He squeezed and stroked, an archaic task emblazoned in his mind. His thighs spread obediently, allowing his friend to settle between them and offer him access to the girth still stiff against his stomach.

“I want you to have me too,” he managed in a whisper, finding Noh-Varr’s bright eyes. 

Nothing would give Noh-Varr more pleasure than having Tommy for all of eternity. He too noticed the new ways in which their bodies fit together, the tenderness spawned from being entangled like two entwined octopi. There was warmth in all of Tommy’s limbs now and the hot, heavy heat pressed to his stomach became far less of an enigma. Noh found that rubbing himself into Tommy’s offered touch sent more heat spiralling through his new body, tipped him onto something he didn’t know and made his breath come in short pants. It felt so good, so much like Tommy was reaching into him and pouring his affection right into Noh’s core.

Sacrificing his fin and life was worth this. Anything would have been a feasible price to pay for this beautiful intimacy given to them and for the first time, Noh considered the witch’s words might have held some truth. She’d allowed him to be with Tommy, like this. Alive in a strange new world, and together.

“Let me,” he muttered against greedy lips that would not tire of his taste. A large hand took hold of Tommy’s strange new genitalia and he mirrored the motion, testing out which pressure and speed could elicit more of those sweet cries. Maybe being human had its perks.

Tommy had tried to maintain his grip on Noh-Varr. The moment pleasure rocketed up down to his toes, he lost the good battle and sank into the mattress. If nothing else, humans knew how to construct comfortable furniture for such an occasion.

Newly given hips tilted up into each stroke, mouth kissing and sucking on any part of Noh-Varr the prince had access to in his prone state. Later, Tommy would calculate the witch’s plans. He had gone for help, and he had received it in the shape of a frustrating, overbearing, protective predator who had no limit to his stomach.

Tommy rubbed his hands along Noh-Varr’s back, feeling scars. His thighs lifted, the inner parts scrubbing against the new parts of his friend, making him break off the kiss enough to chuckle.

“Tickles,” he said in explanation, rubbing his calves and thighs once more along the scarred skin.

But it certainly was much smoother than Noh’s skin had been previously. With Tommy rubbing over him so vivaciously, Noh could only throw his head back, body arching for the prince’s touch. This was amazing. No part of him had ever been so vulnerable to a simple touch.  
“You’re so warm...and soft...this is...I think I like this, Tommy.”

Tommy’s fingers danced back up to Noh-Varr’s neck, feeling the smooth skin and its lack of gills. Upon leaning closer he could supply the area with kisses that left marks in his wake. He smiled at them, then at Noh-Varr.

“I feel warm,” he said, pulling the other down so their crotches could meet. A shuddering breath matched the strength of a shiver that rippled through him. “I don’t know if I like it, but,” he kissed Noh-Varr, confirming something to himself, “if it’s you, I could learn to like anything.”

“Even as a human?” Noh paused in his undulations, though his newly acquired legs and hips twitched, body driven by something not quite under his control. This urge to...copulate, for he was certain that was the feeling he was experiencing. It grew beyond his thoughts and took on a life of its own, bringing his hands to Tommy’s waist and pulling him into one forward motion, then pushing him back.

It felt glorious.

Tommy sighed into Noh-Varr’s mouth, matching the moves. Something ingrained in them, in all species, coaxed them closer, guided their hips to strike the proper angle that had both of them holding gazes for a long time. Despite the bright eyes, Tommy saw only Noh-Varr in them, the same brilliance, the same exotic creature.

“Yes,” he confessed, tongue loose, and going looser with each rock of their hips.

Soon one could say he was mewling, head rocking from side to side as a manifestation of his frustration. They could touch for hours and still his body wouldn’t be sated. He felt it in his bones and it frustrated him that much more, so much so he dragged his nails down Noh-Varr’s back and let out a cry.

It wasn’t quite as simple as when they’d done this before. Noh-Varr didn’t know how to shift his body to please Tommy, to assuage his impatient moans and satisfy his blatant need.

He too was growing short of breath and patience though, always on the edge of something splendid and yet never quite reaching it. 

Noh wanted to be inside of Tommy. And yet, he didn’t have a clue how humans did this. Short of time and nerve, he traced over Tommy’s new, quite attractive behind, found the cleft between two globes of muscle and explored what lay there. Yes, humans did have...the appropriate equipment, physically. But he did not trust them to work the same way he knew, so his fingers probed at the orifice, finding it to be very small. How was he supposed to fit into it?

For all the new delights and potential human bodies had, Tommy found them beyond aggravating at this point. The instinct abandoned them, like a gap had formed along the road to fulfill each other’s desires. How to jump over it, Tommy hadn’t the faintest, and squirming was the best he could offer himself.

He stilled when he felt Noh-Varr’s fingers exploring. Oh. Tommy squirmed again, breath slowing down at the tickling sensation. Was that how it worked? 

Tommy willed his muscles to stop contracting and studied the feeling of a probing finger. His eyes fell to the girth jutting out between Noh-Varr’s legs.

“It won’t fit.”

The conclusion was somewhat of a cold wave over the heat coiling and snarling within his body. Tommy’s lack of confidence was sobering, but not defeating. That new flesh between his legs was not the only thing he could use and he thought it a shame to only let his fingers taste the young prince’s new delights.

“I have an idea,” without more explanation or preamble, he seized Tommy’s sides and plucked him away from his body, depositing on the bed. Then, he took it upon himself to crawl down and position his head, gazing at the hard flesh unashamed. If the touch of his hand pleased Tommy, surely this would create an even better feeling?

Mindful of his teeth, he took the prince into his mouth, only the tip at first, licking and nibbling in small delightful ways.

Being tossed back to the bed had more than riled up Tommy’s non-existent scales. Heat exploded in his cheeks though when he popped up onto his elbows, spotting his friend gazing shamelessly.

Then, a mouth took him in, and Tommy forgot his insults, flung back to the mattress by the might of Noh-Varr’s tongue and lips on him.

“Oh,” he sighed, almost cried were it not for the last shred of defense. Amazing.

His fingers, quivering, reached out and threaded through Noh-Varr’s hair, urging him on. To allow better access, his thighs remained opened, hooked over broad shoulders. Tommy decided he could linger in this position for days on end.

“LIke that,” he ordered, already pinpointing what felt better. He was a prince for good reason, bred to inflict orders and demand Noh-Varr to suck harder, slow down, or pick up his pace.

It came as no surprise that Tommy was a demanding lover and Noh would not have it any other way. Conforming to his demands, Noh sucked harder, dedicated more of his mouth to the purpose of pleasing Tommy. It was an odd sensation and he did have to fight that latent instinct to bite down on anything fleshy in his mouth. Every one of his senses sung with Tommy, he smelled, tasted, felt and heard him all around and Noh’s heart soared with comfort and obsession.

Though Tommy was a beautiful sight to behold, Noh closed his eyes and dedicated himself further, fingers exploring the strange attachments below the shaft of flesh in his mouth.

Given his isolated and predatory nature, Tommy would have offered a piece of admiration to his companion; Noh-Varr obeyed meticulously. His obsequious manner turned the fishly prince into a stretching feline under the ministrations.

Tommy had no protests to his body explored if Noh-Varr was doing the exploring, and conquering. New sounds dribbled forth, some deeper than others, and some long like the whine of an animal.

Heat swam everywhere within, and yet its climax had yet to peak.

“Noh-Varr,” Tommy breathed, voice cracked, body heaving for deep breaths. He felt a pull in his gut, and he feared it signaled a release he was not yet ready for. “Wait. Come up, I want to kiss you, and I want you to try again.” His fingers snagged on hair and his mouth went for Noh-Varr’s. “Just do it. It’ll be fine. Maybe that’s how it works, on its own...”

His task was new and curious, but Noh-Varr would never deny Tommy a kiss, especially not when he requested it so ardently. But he would remember this practice, remember what benefits it yielded to him for so little time and effort. His mouth and jaw ached in some strange way, but he paid it no mind, draping over Tommy’s mouth and enjoying every single flick of his tongue over the soft, hot inside of it.

With the prince beneath him and his knees still hooked over Noh’s shoulders, he had easy...access to the troubling little entrance. It did not look any more spacious than before.

But Tommy insisted, and Noh wanted to sink into him. He took his own jut of flesh (they really ought to ask what to call this singular clasper) and pressed it to the little orifice, waiting for some kind of sign from Tommy as he attempted to push into him.

Finally, progress. 

At least, that was how it started. Noh-Varr kissing him, fierce and tender in a hot press of their mouths, his back bending to accommodate the shift in positions, the pressure of promise for what was to come. It had been too long since they joined bodies.

An inch breached, and Tommy grunted hard, the sound choking on itself as his spine went rigid. He clung to Noh-Varr’s arm, forgetting how to breathe.

“I...I’m fine,” he forced out, his breath all wrong, “just...wait. I need...a moment.”

Just a moment and he would adjust, surely. He breathed hard, nudging aside the insistent warning that Noh-Varr’s full size could not enter him without repercussions. Damn the warning, Tommy figured. If he had to endure pain to unionize their bodies once more, he could do that little.

With a nod, he signaled for Noh-Varr to continue. “Try...but...just push in as much. I think,” he groaned, “if too slowly, it’ll hurt...”

“It seems human bodies have some major flaws,” Noh added, but he too was eager to rest inside of his beloved. Humans were probably not made for such things, but if they were to be stuck like this, they would damn well enjoy every ounce of comfort there was to be had.

“If it feels like some kind of wound I will stop,” with the same care he’d afforded Tommy so long ago when he wielded not just one but two protrusions for this purpose, he guided himself deeper into the tight, heated space that seemed to scream protest at this invasion.

And then it was not just the muscles screaming, but their owner himself. One, sharp scream flew out of Tommy, and panic laced with pain scratched its way up his back. He sucked in as much air as he could once the scream left him winded, and he tried to push at the other’s chest, but could do nothing more than hold on.

“Tommy?!”

First muffled, then a bang, and his name shouted again, louder and nearer this time.

Billy swarmed in with his human in tow, a cry of disgust chasing after his furious shout.

“Get off him!” He beat at Noh-Varr’s back. “You damn idiot, you’re hurting him! What are you doing?!”

Noh-Varr was too stunned by the revelation he’d hurt Tommy to react to the weak battering of his back. He situated himself out of the boy as fast as possible, instead leaning down and scooping the boy into his arms, bowing his head to his shoulder in shame.

Tommy winced and stumbled over another cry; it hurt worse than when Noh-Varr had pushed himself through the clenched muscle. On instinct he pressed his hand against Noh-Varr’s head, holding him close, flinches racking his body.

“Tommy, Tommy!”

Batting aside his twin’s hand, Tommy buried himself deeper against his friend, refusing to be pried off so easily.

“Stop yelling!” He bellowed back. “I’m fine, I’m fine,” he shifted and hissed, pinching his eyes shut.

“You’re not fine! What was...he was hurting you!”

“Not on purpose, you dolt!” Tommy smoothed his hands over Noh-Varr’s face, trying to coax his eyes onto him. “We...it’s not your business what we were doing, we simply...were...”

A hand on Billy’s shoulder, thick and assuring, quelled his next outburst. It seemed the twins were prone to biting at each other’s tails, in fish form or not.

“Billy,” Teddy said, eyes soft. With a huff, his lover resisted the urge to gouge out Noh-Varr’s eyes as the blonde approached. “Tommy?”

Tommy pressed harder into Noh-Varr. “He wasn’t hurting me,” he grunted.

“I know, I think I understand.” Teddy said, looking at Noh-Varr now. “You two were trying to be...intimate, right? But I doubt you two had considered, ah...preparing, hm?”

“Preparing?” Noh-Varr didn’t really want to look away from Tommy’s eyes, apologizing silently over and over. The irony of the situation was that as a terrifying predator, he’d never once hurt Tommy. His first try at human intimacy left a sour note in his mouth.

His sculpted arms which might have sent a painter into fits of creative ecstasy wrapped around Tommy and reached for a blanket to cover the two of them as he massaged a thigh in apology.

“Yes, of course. I understand you’re not use to...being in this body,” Teddy said, gently, maintaining a respectable distance. He was wide and tall, built for power yet filled with kindness and patience.

Tommy lifted his thigh, pleased with the treatment though displeased by the burn in his body and the expression on Noh-Varr’s face.

“Look,” Teddy said, gesturing to Billy, who, with some more huffing, retrieved a bottle from a cupboard. “Oil. It helps to relax your partner. It may seem like a chore but it’s quite...pleasurable, watching how it affects the one you’re with.”

“Don’t go into detail!” Billy said, perhaps five shades redder.

Tommy ignored his twin mating with this blonde and snatched the bottle, uncapping it and sniffing it. He smiled, nose tickled pleasantly. 

“Vanilla, I think,” he said, lifting it for Noh-Varr to inspect.

Noh-Varr had no idea what vanilla was supposed to smell like, but he nodded and took the bottle. The liquid inside would be the key to allowing him a painless union with Tommy? He poured a little on his finger, feeling how odd it stuck and clung.

“This feels like whale blubber...about three layers in. It gets that kind of texture,” without so much as a thank you, he turned completely back to Tommy, caressing his thigh with his free hand.

“Next time then...”

“Only you would say it like that,” Tommy said, his world once more with a center of Noh-Varr. 

He inspected the substance, how it hugged the fingers. Crunching up his nose, Tommy sniffed it again and then, with no preamble, popped the digit into his mouth, sucking and lapping.

“Tommy!”

Teddy laughed, already steering his lover away. “It’s fine. We use it to cook, so it’s edible, but don’t eat the whole bottle.”

No one minded him or his words, Tommy far more preoccupied fondling Noh-Varr’s fingers with his tongue, eyes murky once more as he met his predator’s eyes.

Clearly, their copulation had all permission to continue. Noh-Varr paid little heed to the two departing the room, all of his world was taking shape in one now human prince, and his world was eager to please him.

Noh-Varr sat back with a little sigh that had potential for a moan, but he couldn’t possibly tear his gaze from the sight of Tommy sucking on his fingers.

“It doesn’t hurt anymore? I take it you want to continue?”

Tommy licked his lips clean, shifting back so his legs could stretch out.

“It’s nothing serious,” he said. He was young, reckless, and thus with a proclivity to engage in activity beyond his limits or experience.

Gradually, making good show of it, he lowered onto his back, legs propped up once more. The presentation set before Noh-Varr’s appetite made him turn pink, but beyond that he did not let it affect his expression.

“I’m not afraid,” he said.

“It is not a contest of bravery, Tommy,” Noh was willing enough to return to his position above the boy, this time armed with knowledge and alert care for what Tommy could and would endure.

“You are a sight to behold, you know that don’t you,” he muttered as he traced over thighs once more. He could learn to worship thighs, if they belonged to Tommy. He neared the place Tommy wanted him on, then teased the boy by running his fingers over where leg became hip, tracing beautiful hipbones, sharply jutted and yet by no means too bony. 

“There is no need to rush, is there...I just...need to look at you. A lot.”

Tommy moaned, an amalgamation of his frustration and approval. Noh-Varr tore him to pieces, an apropos analogy given his history as a mer-shark. Some bits adored the other man (how odd to call him that), while others despised his stubborn behavior, and more felt frustration for his teasing.

“I’m yours to look at,” Tommy said, insisted really. His legs pressed into the touches, reaffirming Noh-Varr that limbs and all, the prince had been claimed. 

Feet dragged up, tracing Noh-Varr’s muscles. He figured feet had their purpose now.

He didn’t know what possessed him, perhaps the way Noh-Varr looked at him mingled with the arousal, but without his permission his soul spoke on his behalf (much to his later chagrin): “Yours to love.”

There was that word again. That...those words that the witch had asked, the ones he’d given in return. He claimed to love Tommy, and yet, how was he supposed to? Just by copulation and protection? What did it even mean to love anything?

“I don’t know how to do that.”

He didn’t know why he’d said so either, because that was probably not what Tommy wanted to hear from him. Though the heat lingered in his body, his mind began to question what he had done, what he was doing right now, what he’d sacrificed for Tommy alone...

Tommy sat up, flummoxed and stunned by his tongue’s lack of restraint. Were it not for Noh-Varr’s answer, he might have forgiven its treachery. Sobered up now by the words, Tommy reached out, obeying instinct; it had not steered him wrong thus far.

“Look at me,” he said, thumb molding over the lines unbecoming on his friend’s face. Friend. Noh-Varr was no mere friend.

Once he garnered the other’s attention, once he melted and fell into those bright eyes, Tommy found himself smirking.

“You already have,” he said, pressing their foreheads together. “And I may want to smother you if you admit to anyone that...I might be as love-stricken as my idiotic twin.”

“Who would I tell? Shall I whisper it to the waves? Confide in the wind?” Noh-Varr let his eyes fall to half-mast, revelling in how close Tommy’s beautiful face lingered and how peaceful he looked. And most of all, his words rang true in Noh-Varr’s head. His worry was for nought, there was nothing to be changed or proven here. He and Tommy just....were. That’s how it began, nothing more, nothing less.

“You’re a love-struck fool, are you?” he whispered once more.

As punishment for parroting, Tommy bit on Noh-Varr’s neck. One might later consider that lacked any actual downside, by the way the former mer-shark responded and their mouths met for another series of kisses, of all varieties.

Tommy could endure learning to walk, to run, to breathe nothing but air and the life Noh-Varr filled his body with. The troubles from being no son of the sea would come, but now there was Noh-Varr, and there would always be Noh-Varr.

“I want our own cottage,” he said around kisses, luring his love(!) atop him once more. “A place no one will barge into. Near my brother, maybe on another island. With the sea not far off. I want to learn to cook. I don’t want to be pampered anymore. I’ll cook for you. Fish on fire, maybe. I think I want to feel grass on my feet and learn to dance. I’ll make you learn with me.”

“You want a lot, don’t you?” Noh listened to Tommy’s demands, not having a clue on how to fulfil such exuberant dreams. How did you acquire a house? Fight off another from the territory? Cook? He’d only ever eaten one type of meal and that certainly took no preparation. 

“What about the sea? Do you not want to find a way to return?”

He didn’t know whether he himself did, either. Life as a human seemed deceptively easy and pleasant.

Tommy hummed as he contemplated the workings of being human, As he did, he guided Noh-Varr’s hands to his thighs, enjoying the chills and heat it managed to inflict on his skin.

“I think the witch gave us a gift, Noh-Varr,” he said carefully. “We are free from my grandfather, free from...those that want to hurt us there. For now, I...” he would have to return sometime. Could he truly leave all sons and daughters of the sea to the wrath his grandfather would bring.

Why should he care? No one cared for him before, and the one who had abandoned him for a life on land.

“I have you,” Tommy insisted, convincing himself, “why do I need anything else? You and freedom. That’s all.” He cupped Noh-Varr’s face and kissed him. “Live with me. Here.”

“I will live with you, here, in your coral castle, in the deepest crevice of the sea or the furthest strip of land, Tommy,” his dedication was probably the best telltale sign that he did indeed know how to love someone, even if he wasn’t aware of possessing the trait.

“You know I am not bound to anything in the sea. But you are. And the witch, she spoke strange words to me. When she gave me the power to cure you...she claimed...to be your mother.”

Tommy winced, the burn of her memory enough to make him shove Noh-Varr away a moment.

“I don’t want to talk about her,” he said, then amended his tone, crawling back, eagerly if another saw, into Noh-Varr’s arms and lap. He inhaled sense, logic, and things he might not ever understand. This was home, right there.

“I don’t want to talk about any of that. Not when I got you now.” He hugged Noh-Varr closer to him. “Bastard is what you are for making me care so much. Stubborn, always hungry. Beautiful. Kind. You make my tongue loose.” He grunted the last part.

With a lapful of prince insulting and complimenting him, Noh could let the witch’s words slip from his mind. Who cared if she thought herself to be their mother? They were beyond her reach now, about to embark on this new life...together. Yes. Definitely together.

“Don’t blame yourself, you are a love-struck fool remember?” Before he could receive some sort of retribution for that, Noh-Varr covered Tommy’s mouth with his own again. He could do this back and forth all night long. Maybe all week.

Tommy wasn’t grateful for anything, less so verbally. The kiss had its merits though, deterring discussions and frightening off morbid thoughts. Noh-Varr’s mouth had plenty to offer a man with a heavy mind, and Tommy was just that, though he would not admit it.

So they kissed for hours, days, and rocked their bodies against one another. Eventually they resumed a familiar position, Tommy’s leg hooked over an elbow of Noh-Varr’s, other propped up. Soundlessly, the prince grabbed the neglected bottle and pressed it into the other’s chest.

There was no reason to deny Tommy this time, with the knowledge of what they must use and do in order to fix those compatibility problems human bodies possessed. This time, he would not hurt his love and they would be one.

Noh didn’t know how much he needed, so he poured at least a quarter of the bottle onto his hand and brought it between Tommy’s firm globes fairly swiftly, at first, just one. Noh was surprised to see how easily it slid in this time around, how there was no ache, no whine from Tommy, just a surprised little gasp.

“Is this better? Do you want more?”

Tommy wiggled his lower body, half-riding the digit as it entered. Far better. No pain, barely the faint burn from earlier. Though there needed to be a remedy for the next time for the sounds; too much oil caused for sloppy noises that turned the prince’s cheeks pink.

“You put too much,” he said, heel nudging Noh-Varr’s shoulder. 

The effort went to waste when a groan left him. It was all the urging required to have two, then, with more patience to Tommy’s internal frustration, a third. There was a lace of discomfort, more a feeling of being full, and it heightened his anticipation to be that much fuller.

“Good,” he breathed, never taking his eyes off Noh-Varr.

It was steadfast dedication to prepare one’s lover for this, Noh decided. He had to figure out how to move his fingers, which angles, which movements drew more sweet little groans that Tommy tried his best not to let overwhelm him. He was fighting a losing battle as Noh was a quick study. 

He would have put his mouth over his lover’s sensitive parts without question, but the way that jut of flesh of his own ached, he figured now was not the moment. Three fingers moved comfortably inside of Tommy now and the noises were...well they were a little loud, but the pink blush on the prince’s cheeks was absolutely worth it.

“You think this is enough?” he gestured down to where flesh stood to attention for Tommy. He was much...more than just three fingers though.

Tommy grunted long and low, squirming. Nothing would be enough until Noh-Varr sank himself in, held him close, and took him as hard as he dared. Sweet, slow coupling was not for him. Well, perhaps later he might amend that to allow it to dot the track of their soon to be very fulfilling sex life.

“If you don’t put it in now I might cut if off and do it myself!”

“Always so impatient,” Noh-Varr jerked his fingers loose and applied more oil, this time lathering his hot shaft with it. Cool and smooth against his skin, he didn’t waste any more time, lest he prompt Tommy’s rapidly increasing ire.

Sinking in was a world apart from the last time they tried and Noh-Varr gasped, then moaned as tight heat grabbed at him from every angle.

“Tommy,” he moaned as if it was his mantra. This time, no stopping, he sank in to the hilt, fully sheathed in the one he adored.

Tommy lost his voice in a half-groan that wanted to be a full shout. It was so unlike their first time, now so full of Noh-Varr, stretched to the point where it burned deliciously. His breath returned to him long after he realized Noh-Varr had sank as deeply as he could. 

He broke into a quavering exhale and held tight to the other’s arms, searching his eyes, wanting to see the expression.

“Feels,” he inhaled deeply, “different.” Very different. Very good, very full, very everything.

He drew his love down for a kiss, because that’s what one’s love did, no?, and rolled his hips up and down. There was no tap to his voice now. A new body meant new sensations that blew the lid off, the room poured with his sounds.

It wasn’t entirely new, the motion of burying a part of himself in Tommy was familiar, even if the appendages for said purpose were reduced by one. In place of his claspers though, this new...thing dangling between his legs and now buried deep within Tommy, was at least tenfold more sensitive. He could feel Tommy squeezing at him, could feel the very heat of his body seep into him from all direction and it was...beyond breathtaking. Never had Noh-Varr felt so united with anything or anyone. Especially not during copulation.

“Tommy...” another indulgent moan as he rolled his hips, drawing back, then prying forward once more, “you feel amazing. You have to try this one day.”

Each shift, every thrust, pushed out a different sound, some slipping out so fast they mangled the one that had yet to finish it before it. They could indulge in this for weeks non-stop, bodies sensitized in all the right places. Less and less Tommy longed for his fin.

Legs spreading wider, he let his hands hang above his head, stretching under each thrust.

“Oh, I plan to,” he purred, already imagining the sensation Noh-Varr must be blessed with. Definitely a perk to being human.

Then his smirk faded, replaced with a hanging jaw that let his cries leap out in strings or short, grunt-like ones. The thrusts came harder, faster, as per his demands. His nails scratched, bit pieces of Noh-Varr’s skin, not enough to leave scars, but they would suffice for the morning-after.

Somewhere between the nth thrust and the nth, Tommy reached down, touching himself as Noh-Varr had done. His cries escalated, as did his encouragements. At the right angle, he felt sparks tickle behind his eyelids, and then, as quick as he felt the rise of a heavier, thicker heat, it crested, crashing into him so he spilled Noh-Varr’s name to the walls, thighs cramping, everything squeezing impossibly tighter around the one person that had Tommy give a damn.

Noh-Varr was on somewhat of a new experience himself. With every push, he felt more static pleasure surge through him, as if the simple movement was enough to satisfy his needs. Tommy was squeezing at him, demanding something Noh didn’t know, not yet but by the sounds coming from the prince’s sweet lips, soon both of them would experience what it truly meant to be blessed with human life. 

“Tommy,” he answered the frantic repetition of his name, but could do no more than bury his head onto the boy’s shoulder as whatever ripped through Tommy took a greedy hold on him too, drawing a long groan from his mouth and the mounting pressure of something amazing about to happen broke in one glorious burst. At least release he knew, it felt the same, only tenfold more gratifying.

So many unlikes to being a son of the sea. The release lingered, a blanket that weighed heaviest on his eyes. Still, Tommy forced his limp limbs to wrap around Noh-Varr, keep him nestled inside while his fingers traced patterns on his back, his neck.

“Noh-Varr,” he said, the name encapsulating all his thoughts. He planted a kiss to his temple.

“You’re mine,” he claimed, “my companion, my predator, my hunter, my...mate.” Then, in a grunt, “My love.”

“Those are a lot of titles to bear, but I will do my best to fulfil them and make you...happy. My fishling prince. My fast little fin.” He wondered if he too needed to make sure Tommy understood what he was to Noh, but somehow, it was all already there in that sea-green gaze. Beautiful, he was so beautiful...

“My love. I am forever with you.” 

They stayed like that for half an eternity, breathing in each other’s life, moulding their hearts together as if someone strained for them to be apart and needed to be presented with a united front.


End file.
